High School With The Koopalings!: The Sequel
by BoundlessRenegade
Summary: Join the Koopalings once again as they return to high school for their senior year and reunite with old friends and make new friends! (Sequel to High School With The Koopalings! from my old account, iLoveLarryKoopax3. Read introduction for more info! Cover image belongs to Miss Mario.)
1. Introduction and Prologue

**A/N: hey everyone! welcome to this fanfic. some of you may remember me from my old account, iLoveLarryKoopax3, but if not, hi! i'm ariel. long story short, i abandoned that account about 3 years ago and recently wanted to log back in to make a sequel to my old fanfic 'High School With The Koopalings!', but i forgot my password and disabled the email i used for that account around 2 years ago to create a new email. now i'm back on a new account to do what i wanted - create a sequel to that fanfiction. i recommend reading that one first but if not, that's cool too! feel free to submit your oc's to be in this story - i'll be accepting only 6 because it's kind of hard to include so many characters in every chapter. plus, i will be adding more mario characters into this fanfiction to interact and befriend the koopalings, unlike my last fanfiction, where it was just about the koopalings and people's oc's. also, please stick to submitting only one character per person. here's a format for submitting a character!**

 **Name:**  
 **Physical Appearance:**  
 **Personality Traits:**  
 **Friends?:**  
 **Enemies?:**  
 **Hobbies?:**  
 **Crush? (except for Roy, Morton, or Doopliss):**

 **those are the main things i need to know for writing a character. everything with a ? is optional to fill out, but if you don't fill those out, you're pretty much leaving it up to me to fill those things out for you throughout the story. for example, if you don't fill out who your character is friends with, in the story i'll make your character friends with people who i think suit their personality. does that make sense? if not, pm me about it! also, for friends/enemies/crushes, it does not have to only include koopalings. feel free to suggest ideas for other mario characters you'd like to see as students! i already have some ideas on who to add.**

 **i hope you guys will enjoy this story once i get it going, it will take a while for the first actual chapter to be out. i'm most likely going to get a laptop for my birthday (june 25) so when i do, it'll be much easier for me to get chapters out, seeing as right now i'm writing on my phone. this gives you guys a chance to submit your characters! of course you can still submit them past june 25 if i still don't have 6 characters already added to the story. also go check out my tumblr if you want, 'boundlessrenegade', because i'll most likely be posting stuff there about this fanfiction. not necessarily chapters but random stuff like bios for characters i plan on adding.**

 **okay, that's enough basics! let's get on with the short prologue! disclaimer: i do not own any of the characters included in this chapter, all of them belong to nintendo.**

It was yet another hectic day in the Koopa household. But this hectic day wasn't like every other hectic day; no, today, the Koopalings were going back to finish high school. More specifically, they were starting their senior year this day after missing majority of high school. Bowser had pulled them out halfway through their freshman year to focus more on kidnapping Princess Peach, but now? Bowser had somewhat given up on that.

Well, maybe not given up completely.

But that's besides the point - he had decided to put the Koopalings back into school. Their social skills had worsened and their grades? Let's just say Kamek didn't do such a good job on private tutoring them for the past 2 years. King Koopa himself had decided that enough was enough, and the 7 of them were to return to school.

As of right now, all seven of them were trying to fit into one car. Not the safest or smartest plan they've ever had, but then again, when have any of their plans been safe or smart?

"Ow, stop squishing me!" "This cars sooo tiny, can't we use a bigger one?" "Guys my bags stuck in the door!" "Get off of me!"

" _Enough_!" Ludwig yelled at the other six in the vehicle, already near red in the face. "Will everyone shut their mouths for one minute? Get your seatbelts on and be quiet so that I can focus on the road and get us to school."

"But Ludwig," Wendy groaned. "There's not even enough seatbelts for all of us! This is a five seater car, and uh," she gestured to all of them. "We're not five people."

Ludwig rolled his eyes and pointed to the floor of the car. "Lemmy, Larry, you two are the smallest. Lay on the ground."

Lemmy happily obliged, still care-free as always, but Larry? Larry was almost as much of a complainer as Wendy when he's not happy. And at that moment, he was not happy. "What? No! I don't care if I'm the smallest, I am not lying on the floor of your messy car and getting my outfit and hair all ruined on the first day. What if we run into old friends? I wanna look my best."

"You sound like Wendy right now." Roy snarkily commented, which angered Larry and Wendy herself. "Hey!" Roy shrugged and turned back around, sitting in the passenger seat. "It's true!"

"Larry, just lie down." "No!" " _Larry_." " _No_."

It quickly turned into, well, not quite an argument. More like all of the koopalings yelling at Larry except for Larry himself.

"Let's get a move on!" "We have like ten minutes to get to school." "I'm not lying down!" "Can you just cooperate for one time in your life?" "Guys I'm serious we have to leave now." "If you don't get on the dang floor I will make you get on the dang floor. You hear me?"

"Guys!" Iggy yelled, cutting all of them off. "We have to leave right now unless we all want detention the very first day of school for being late." He pointed at the clock inside the car. _7:51_. School started at 8 in the morning. They knew that if they were late, not only would they receive a detention, but they'd also be slightly humiliated for being late the first day.

Morton pushed Larry to the floor of the car and held him down with his feet. "Let's go Ludwig!" Ludwig nodded and floored it out of the driveway, ignoring Larry's protests.

They arrived at the school's parking lot at 7:58, 2 minutes left to get to their homeroom. Ludwig's parking skills were not the greatest, and in a rush? He was nearly on the grass! " _Whatever, it's not that big of a deal. I didn't hit anyone at least_."

The seven rushed to their homeroom classroom and flung the door open just as the bell went off to signal the start of the school day. Everyone looked to be in their seats already, but hey, technically they weren't late.

Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Nastasia, took note of their near-lateness. "Nice to see you seven again at this school. I never taught any of you, so I can't say if you're always almost late like this, but this had better be a one-time thing. Don't make it a habit. Take a seat, 'k?" The group of mischiefs all nodded, with one thing on their mind.

"Great to be back."

 **A/N: sorry it was so short but i hope you all liked this little prologue! i have a bunch of ideas for this story that i can't wait for you guys to see. thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 1: New Beginnings

**A/N: Hey everyone, welcome to the first chapter of High School With The Koopalings: The Sequel! First of all thank you guys so much for submitting your characters and for your positive feedback, I really appreciate it. I know I said I would only accept 6 characters but I chose to accept the 7 submitted because all of them are so interesting and I'm excited to write about all of them. I have some plot ideas floating around in my head about all of them, I just hope you guys will like it too. Also, this chapter will be extremely long mainly because we have to get through the basic introductions and get many different storylines going. However, I do want to make much longer chapters than I used to. I don't want to take forever with updating and then have the chapter be kind of short, so expect somewhat long chapters. I will also be adding a** _ **lot**_ **of side characters (mainly from various paper mario games), but they will mostly just be side characters except for certain ones. If you'd like to see more of a particular character just leave a review letting me know! Any kind of feedback is appreciated. Please let me know if I did a good job portraying a certain character, or if I did a bad job and how I could improve. And I apologize if your character does not play a huge part in this chapter- believe me, everyone's characters will play big parts later on throughout the story. Okay, enough talking, here's the first chapter!**

 **disclaimer: all nintendo characters are owned by nintendo. i only own lindsay and abigail. all other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

' _It's great to be back.'_

The Koopalings hurriedly sat down in various open seats throughout the English classroom, under the strict eye of Ms. Nastasia. The classroom seemed to be packed to the brim, not a single empty desk after the seven sat down.

Roy sat himself down in the far back of the class, right next to quite an attractive koopa. She had straight ginger hair going to her shoulders and piercing green eyes. She wore a dark violet off-the-shoulder crop top and matching skirt going to just above her knees. She watched him sit down and they made eye contact for a split second. Roy had the feeling he knew her, but brushed it off. She, however, had a different idea.

"Look who's back in town. Same old Roy Koopa I see?" He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow, although his glasses hid it so she didn't even notice.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." She kept staring at him even as he looked away once again, looking as if she was waiting for something. He sighed and turned back to her. "Do I know you, or am I just that attractive?" Referring to her watching him. She looked taken aback, nearly offended.

"Wow. I know I cut my hair and let my bangs grow out but, man. Didn't think I was that unrecognizable." He took a better look at her face. She used to have bangs? Who did he know with bangs?

After a good minute of silence between the two, she huffed and glared at him. "Does the name Abigail ring any bells in that thick head of yours?" Of course she was a little offended, they nearly dated three years ago in their freshmen year, how could he forget her? She clearly hadn't forgotten him.

He scoffed at her remark about his 'thick head' and rolled his eyes. "Yep, definitely Abigail. Same sarcastic, annoying personality." Abigail's glare towards him became even colder and she turned away, giving up on him. When did he get so rude?

Across the classroom, Larry took a seat next to a group of guys, all of them talking. He was never a shy one, and they didn't look too mean. He sat down right next to a duplighost wearing a party hat. ' _Very original_ ', he noted. The duplighost and the rest of his friends all took notice of Larry, none of them saying hi however, so he brought it upon himself to greet them. He had to do it in a cool, suave way, to have them understand that he was one cool dude.

"Uh… h-hey there." He awkwardly spoke, his voice cracking halfway through the sentence. He inwardly cursed at himself. That was _not_ cool or suave. That was the true definition of lame. The three guys all looked at him: the duplighost, a jester, and a small green… alien? Okay, he had no clue what that thing was, but that thing was the one to break the silence.

"Greetings, space grunt! We welcome you! Right guys?" The green alien looked at all of his friends, who sat in silence, then back at Larry. "My name is Squirps, but you can call me captain!" The duplighost then rolled his eyes.

"Squirps, stop trying to make 'captain' happen; it's not going to happen." Squirps, looking a little dejected, turned back around in his seat. The duplighost faced Larry. "Nice meeting you, dude. These are my pals, Squirps," Squirps happily turned around again. "And Dimentio." The jester kept holding his slightly unsettling smile. "You can call me Doopliss." The duplighost smirked at him.

"Um, hi, nice to meet you guys. I'm Larry Koopa." Larry awkwardly smiled at them and Dimentio chuckled.

"Oh believe me, we know. Youngest son of the ruler of the koopas. Not that that's a bad thing of course, Squirps himself is also a prince." Dimentio grinned and gestured to Squirps, whose eyes lit up in astonishment.

"Another prince around here? Yay!" Squirps looked ecstatic, as they continued a conversation about pranking one teacher, Dimentio's adoptive father, Mr. Bleck.

"You want in, slick?" Doopliss and the others grinned at him, which Larry returned without hesitation. Who was he to turn down what seemed like a great prank?

"I'm in."

As Larry conversed with his new friends, he caught the attention of two ladies.

One was a magikoopa with bright hazel eyes, long and curly dark purple hair, with mysterious black lipstick. She had silver hoop earrings and was wearing a black cloak with silver stars scattered across it. She was the definition of mystery.

The other girl was a lycan, also known as a half human half wolf creature. She had long silver hair tied up into a ponytail, intense crimson eyes, and fluffy ears and tail. She was wearing a red tank top with an open black leather jacket and blue jeans. She had a moon pendant to finish off the look. If you looked closely enough, you could see that she had small fangs. She looked a bit intimidating, but not too scary.

The two girls noticed the other one staring at Larry, and nervously looked away. They weren't scared of each other though. They both wanted to make a move on him, each with different plans in mind.

Not too far away, Wendy stood right next to a familiar face, or at least, she hoped was a familiar face. She sat next to a female koopa who had curly brown hair tied up into a messy bun with charming brown eyes. She had on a purple tee-shirt with some planets and stars on it, along with some light blue cropped jeans. She hadn't seemed to notice Wendy yet, lost in her own world, until Wendy cleared her throat, catching her attention.

"Lindsay?" The koopa's eyes brightened and she grinned nearly from ear to ear.

"Wendy?!" Wendy smiled back at Lindsay, placing her books down on the desk next to her. "Oh my grambi I barely recognized any of you!" She excitedly looked around the classroom, spotting the other six koopalings, before turning back to Wendy.

"Um excuse me? Look at you! You look completely different but it's not a bad change, I like it!" Lindsay smiled at Wendy's compliment.

"Thanks! Oh man, it's gonna be great to have all of you back. You have to hang out with the rest of my friends later, including Abby!" Lindsay started talking about all the adventures her and her friends had been on throughout the past few years, and Wendy couldn't wait to meet them all at lunch.

Just a few rows behind Morton, who sat at the very front, Lemmy and Iggy sat right beside each other, just in front of one other koopa. She sat right behind Iggy and had black hair, sparkling green eyes, and a purple shell. She quickly took notice of the two brothers, specifically Iggy. She found him incredibly handsome, and found herself burning up, causing her to be a bit embarrassed. ' _Get a hold of yourself, Cheryl!_ ' She didn't even know the koopa, and yet here she was, thinking about how cute he was. She wanted to talk to him right away, but was too afraid. She couldn't. Not yet, at least.

Finally, there was Ludwig sitting in a corner. He was frustrated, he did _not_ want to be back at high school. He was sat next to a burly, irish boy who immediately tried to start up a conversation with the prince. Bad idea.

"'Ey there! I'm O'Chunks, who're yeh?" Despite his somewhat scary appearance, Ludwig knew that yes, he was kind, but clearly not as smart as himself. He sighed, before muttering his name. O'Chunks, however, didn't hear what he said. "Uh, sorry, I didn't catch yer name! Mind repeatin' it?" He smiled warmly, but Ludwig was not in the best mood.

" _Prince_ Ludwig Von Koopa, though I highly doubt you'll remember that." Ludwig tried his hardest to ignore O'Chunks throughout the rest of the class. ' _Great, I'm stuck next to an oaf for the rest of the school year._ '

Lunch soon came around, and as soon as the bell rang, everyone rushed up. Some, however, rushed a little too fast. A female koopa was leaving her classroom from across the hall as Iggy nearly ran past her, nearly knocking her over.

"Eek!" She stumbled and tried to regain her balance, but tripped over her own tail and fell, along with her books. Iggy noticed and felt awful. The koopa had long, straight blonde hair with mismatched coloured eyes - one green and the other one violet. She also had a cute cat tail and cat ears.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay, miss?" He lent her his hand to help her up, which she gratefully took with a small blush. She went to pick up her books, but he beat her to it. "I'll get them, it's the least I can do."

He picked them all up and then handed them back to her with a sheepish grin. "Um, great first impression huh?" She giggled a bit and smiled.

"Actually, it wasn't the worst first impression. You did redeem yourself, after all." Iggy blushed a bit at this, before awkwardly clearing his throat.

"I'm Iggy and uh, I'll see you around!" He nervously said before taking off. As he walked away, the girl yelled after him.

"Um, I'm Candy! See you!" She blushed to herself, definitely looking forward to the rest of the school year.

At the cafeteria, Lindsay approached her friend group with Wendy close behind. "Hi guys!" She waved to them before sitting down, and making a space for Wendy to sit as well. "Wendy, these are my friends."

The first to recognize Wendy was Abigail. "Wendy! Hey! I missed you so much, I'm so glad you're back!" She grinned happily at Wendy, who returned it in a heartbeat.

"Me too!" She turned to face the other two girls at the table, both of which Lindsay pointed out before: the green girl with pigtails and the nimbi. "Hi there, I'm Wendy O. Koopa."

"Hiya, I'm Mimi!" A green girl with curly pigtails introduced herself. "I'm Mr. Bleck's daughter. Well... adoptive daughter. I don't know if you've met Dimentio or O'Chunks yet but those are my adoptive brothers." She pointed to the purple and yellow clothed jester who was currently sneaking out of the cafeteria with his friends: Doopliss, Larry, Squirps, and a fox. "That one there is Dimentio. He's… annoying. I don't know how he has any friends!" Mimi jokingly laughed before pointing to the muscular scottish guy currently talking with Roy and Morton. "There's O'Chunks! He looks intimidating but really, he's a goofball and a sweetie. Pretty much the opposite of Dimentio." She turned back around to face the last friend, a nimbi, so she could introduce herself.

"Thou mayest refer to me as Luvbi, the daughter of the rulers of the Overthere and Underwhere. Thou may knowest those folk as Queen Jaydes and Grambi." Luvbi said confidently, obviously very proud of her mother and father.

"Wow, that's amazing! You're like… way past royalty." Wendy stared at her in astonishment.

"That is right, I am quaint much beyond royalty. However, I doth not needeth to beest hath called princess or anything of the sort." Luvbi smiled at the rest of them who all groaned, leaving Wendy confused.

Abigail rolled her eyes before saying, "Luvbi says this now, but when someone disrespects her, then she plays the princess card."

"She does it all the time!" Mimi chimed in. "Every time someone fights with her and disrespects her, Luvbi screams at them to refer to her as a princess and nothing less."

"What? Nay, I doth not!" Luvbi scoffed before smirking. "Well now, maybe so." The rest of the table laughed before Doopliss came up and sat down right next to Mimi, who frowned.

"Doopliss, what a pleasure seeing you today! Not. What do you want?" He faked being offended at her words.

"Mimikins, why are you so mean to me? I just wanted to come say hey." He grinned at her, as she grinned back.

"Okay, now you did. So leave." His face dropped, looking quite disappointed.

"Mimi! All I wanted was to hang out with my favourite person!" He put an arm around her, who quickly slapped it away. The rest of the table was watching in anticipation to see what would happen next.

"Doopliss, really. What do you want from me?" She narrowed her eyes at him until he sighed in defeat.

"Fine, fine. I need a favour from you." He began to ask as Luvbi glared at him.

"What doth thee wanteth, pig?" Wendy could sense that the girls were all annoyed by Doopliss. Doopliss glared right back at Luvbi, clearly not as friendly with her as he was with Mimi.

"Listen, shakespeare, I'm mainly talking to Mimi here, alright? Do you understand that or must I repeat it in your old time-y talk?" Luvbi glared at his words before shutting up and letting him resume talking to Mimi.

"Anywho, I need you to distract your mom, Mrs. Tippi?" Mimi suspiciously glanced at him.

"Tell me why."

"Do I have to?" He sighed as she nodded. "Alright. Me and the guys are planning to prank your dad - Dimentio's idea - at the end of lunch. Our issue is that your dad and mom always have lunch together, so if you distract your mom then your dad will be all alone, ready to be pranked." Doopliss smiled, looking very proud of his idea, until Mimi laughed.

"Why on Earth would I do that? What would _I_ get out of it?" She looked at him as if he was ridiculous and he smirked.

"If you don't, Dimentio has your diary. He'll share the contents of it with everyone in this school. Including myself and uh, apparently there's some stuff in there about me?" He winked at her and Lindsay gasped.

"You wouldn't dare!" She wanted to stick up for Mimi, even if it wouldn't help much.

"Oh, but we would." Doopliss chuckled and Mimi reluctantly agreed. The two left to go do prank-related stuff and the rest of the table continued their discussion.

The rest of the pranking crew were making their way to Mr. Bleck's classroom, where him and his wife spent their lunches every day. The pranking crew consisted of Larry, Dimentio, Squirps, and an anthropomorphic fox named Norman. He had been polite to Larry during introductions at the beginning of lunch, but once Larry mentioned that he was a prince, Norman had started acting a bit colder to him, despite always being so cheery. Larry couldn't figure out why though.

They had almost made it without anyone catching them (they were looking pretty suspicious, carrying huge buckets of paint after all), until they rounded a corner. Larry ran right into a girl whose attention he'd caught before, the girl who was half fox.

"Agh! Really dude?!" She glared at him, ignoring the fact that she thought he was cute. She was covered head to toe in light blue paint, and a certain mischievous magikoopa who had been following Larry the entire time was snickering from behind a plant. Larry's face paled, and the rest of his friends backed away.

"Uhhh… I'm so sorry! Um, oh gee, I'm really sorry." He hoped that would be enough, but she scoffed.

"Yeah, that's not gonna cut it! Do you know how hard acrylic paint is to get off of clothes?" She asked him, and Dimentio chimed in.

"Impossible,"

"Exactly!"

"Without magic." He finished. She raised an eyebrow at him as he snapped his fingers and all the paint was gone. "You're welcome, and your name is?"

"...You can call me Wolfe. And thanks." She turned back to Larry before smirking. "You got off easy this time dude, you owe me one."

He nodded frantically, not wanting to anger her again. "Of course! Uh, I'll see you around, Wolfe. I'm Larry!" He waved to her as she waved back before walking away. "Thanks for that, Dimentio."

Dimentio grinned, sending chills down his spine. "You owe me one too, Lawrence." Larry awkwardly smiled and nodded.

"Uh… alright." The four progressed to Mr. Bleck's classroom, hiding behind a wall. They waiting for Doopliss to arrive with Mimi, so Mimi could distract Mrs. Tippi. They knew Mimi would have to, she'd rather die than have people expose what was inside of her diary. Which made Larry wonder…

"Dimentio? What's inside Mimi's diary anyways?" Dimentio seemed to freeze in place as the other two watched.

"Yeah, what _is_ in there that's so bad?" Norman questioned suspiciously. I mean come on, it was _Mimi_ , what awful things did she have to hide?

"Let's just say, the act she puts up around Doopliss? It's all a cover." Dimentio snickered, not wanting to say much more until later.

"Act?" Larry wondered, not knowing about Mimi and Doopliss' rivalry.

"It's a shapeshifter rivalry." Norman informed him while slightly rolling his eyes. "They both like to joke around with each other but also insult each other. It's kind of weird, but who am I to judge?"

"Mhm! Squirps agrees. Who'd wanna be mean to a friend?" Squirps piped in.

"Is it really any of your business's?" Mimi snapped as her and Doopliss had showed up silently, and the other four nearly had heart attacks. "Out of my way." She pushed past all of them, and their plan was set into action.

It wasn't a very difficult plan, not at all. Mimi had successfully led Mrs. Tippi away to talk about who-knows-what while the five guys ambushed Mr. Bleck with acrylic paint. He looked like a rainbow after that. All throughout the school, everyone could faintly hear a ' _ **DIMENTIO**_ ' followed by a bunch of boys giggling like schoolgirls.

Back in the cafeteria, Roy and Morton were bonding with O'Chunks. O'Chunks was currently filling them in on who was who, and Roy couldn't resist asking about Abigail.

"She's a _what?_ " Roy sputtered out, his face going pale with disbelief.

"A player?" Morton repeated O'Chunks statement in astonishment, and Roy quickly began laughing.

"Abigail Jones, a player? Really? I doubt that." His frantic laughs soon turned to quiet chuckles, but stopped when O'Chunks turned around and pointed at someone.

"Yeh see that guy there?" He was pointing at a certain toad who had blonde hair and sunglasses. The toad was gazing lovingly at Abigail from across the room, who didn't pay any attention to him. "She managed to charm the famous Zip Toad, and the lass doesn't even want 'em!"

His statement, however, was soon to be proved wrong as Zip walked himself over towards Abigail and her friends. He sat himself right beside the ginger and openly flirted with her. This disgusted Roy beyond belief - didn't she have the decency to be all lovey dovey with someone in private and not public? As if his brain was no longer in control, he walked over to that table too and sat down, followed by O'Chunks and Morton.

Abigail noticed but Roy couldn't tell. She didn't spare him a glance and continued her conversation with Zip about homecoming later this month. The other girls though were quick to complain about the boys joining the table.

"Um, guys?" Lindsay glanced at the three boys. "Yeah, it's nice to have you back but uh, the table's a little cramped." She gestured to everyone being literally squished next to each other, including Abigail and Zip. The two didn't seem to mind, but Roy did.

"Bleh, can you two get a room or something?" He waved his hands around, gesturing to all the people in the same room. "You're in public. It's gross."

"Your face is gross." Zip snarkily shot back and in the blink of an eye, Roy slammed both his hands down on the table, making everything jump.

"Roy!" Abigail glared at the pink koopa, infuriated with him. He was the one who barged over to _her_ table, if he didn't like it, he could leave. Plus, his whole attitude in English had given her a bad start to her day. "We need to talk."

He glared at her as she stood up, but followed her. He wanted to give her a piece of his mind - had she no idea what PDA was?

To be fair, Roy didn't know what it stood for.

But she should!

The two walked off into the hall and Abigail's eyes seemed to pierce through Roy's shades. "What is your _problem?_ " She muttered through her teeth and he scoffed.

"My problem? What the hell was that, huh?! It was gross. Why don't you two learn to flirt and make googly eyes at each other in private?" He towered over her, trying to intimidate her, but she didn't back down.

"Since when are _you_ the one to have a problem with flirting with people?" Her face nearly matched her hair with how angry she was. Who was he to tell her who she can and can't flirt with?

"Since when are _you_ a player?" He fired back at her, getting close to her face to scare her. "I thought you valued relationships."

"You're one to talk." Abigail huffed, and took a step back. "You don't know anything about me, Roy. We're not close. Why do you have an issue with me flirting with other guys when we're not even together?!" She hissed at him, holding her intense gaze. "We _never_ were."

She couldn't tell, but behind those shades, his eyes softened. She was right. He was mad because he was jealous when he had no right to be. "You're right. We never were together." He turned away from her and headed back to the cafeteria. "Be with who you want, I don't care."

She watched him go, and felt the same longing feeling in her chest she felt years ago. They were so close to being together, but never made it official. They were so close and she let him walk away. And here they were again, letting the other one slip away. With a sigh, Abigail slowly made her way upstairs to her locker. Class was starting soon, after all. She had no time to focus on him.

The bell rang through the school and everyone rushed into their classes, except for of course five troublemakers who were currently in the principal's office, Ms. Kammy.

Since the school was in Darklands (near the border between it and the Mushroom Kingdom), you'd think Bowser would run the school, right? Well, not exactly. Yes, Bowser owned the school, but he 'had more important things to do than run a high school', so who better to boss children around than Kammy Koopa?

The five boys had to explain to her why exactly they had decided to prank Mr. Bleck, not exactly the best way to spend most of third period.

A few students were spending their third period in the school's large gymnasium for physical education. Those students were some that had english together, and some other students who had math first in the morning. Wendy recognized those faces from english: Roy, Iggy, Abigail, and Cheryl (though she had never spoke with her before). Most of the people in this class though, she didn't recognize. She walked over to Abigail and her new friend Mimi, who were currently heading to the change room for the girls.

"Hey guys!" She greeted them and they waved back at her. "There's a lot of new faces here, for me at least." Mimi could tell she felt a bit overwhelmed and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay Wendy, these people are nice people." She smiled and Abigail scoffed, glancing across the gym at Roy.

"Not all of them." She turned back to the girls and sighed. "Nevermind." She walked past them into the change room and the two followed after exchanging a curious glance.

When everyone had come out of the change rooms, the students were all told to sit on the bleachers and wait for further notice, so Abigail and Mimi took this chance to point at the students Wendy didn't recognize and tell her about them. The students were very diverse: two shadow sirens named Beldam and Marilyn, a nerdy chameleon named Francis who seemed to be bonding with Iggy, a pair of siblings named Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom, a koopa with blonde hair and mismatched eyes that Mimi knew from her first period class who was called Candy, and even a lady boo by the name of Bow.

"Ahem!" The gym teacher made herself present, none other than Coach Daisy. "Off the bleachers everyone, there's no time to sit around and be lazy, we're getting right into our warm ups!" Her voice was very intense and nearly frightened all of the students.

"Coach you _told_ us to sit on the bleachers and wait for you-" Zip Toad tried to correct her, making his way over to Abigail, but Coach Daisy interrupted him.

"I said _no_ such thing, no complaining mister! An extra two laps for your whining." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him and the other to begin running. "Everyone else, five laps! Chop chop, let's go!"

The class groaned but still began running. Wendy, Mimi and Abigail were secretly slacking when the coach wasn't looking, Zip and Roy seemed to be racing each other, but everyone else tried their best to please the coach and do as told.

Meanwhile, in the other period 3 classroom, many students were conversing, excited for drama class. Except for Ludwig, of course. Sure he'd rather have this than gym but he was never one to act. Yes, he liked the spotlight, but he didn't think he was made for acting. Plus, he knew nearly nobody in this classroom, except for...

"Hey, Ludwig!" He turned to see Lindsay walking over to him with a big grin on her face. "How're you liking being back at this school again? Pretty fun, right?"

He contemplated what to say, because truthfully he was _not_ enjoying school, but she did seem to like school and Ludwig didn't want to bring her down. However, she took his silence as a 'no'.

"What's wrong?" She took a seat in a chair and he sat right next to her with a heavy sigh.

"Everyone here is just so… different. Everything's different compared to being privately tutored." He glanced around at the various classmates. "Call me antisocial, but I prefer learning things alone and at my own pace, which is certainly quicker than most of these kid's paces." He looked back at Lindsay who was raising an eyebrow.

"Oh come on Ludwig, lighten up a bit. So what if you have to slow down your learning progress?" She smiled at him but he frowned.

"I'd rather learn what I need to for this year as fast as possible, because as soon as I do, I start preparing to rule this kingdom. I am the heir after all." Ludwig's eyes lit up from mentioning becoming the ruler of Darklands, it had always been his dream, and he was never a patient person.

Lindsay rolled her eyes and placed her hand on his shoulder, making him jump slightly. "Relax. Ever heard the saying 'stop and smell the roses'?" He scoffed at this. Of course he had heard it, he just thought it was stupid. "Well, that's what I think you should do. No offense but you're not the best with socializing. Take the extra time you have in this school to become a more open person."

Before Ludwig could reply, the door flung open by their drama teacher, Madame Flurrie. "Oh my my my, look at all of you! Such a great class already, yes indeed!" Gesturing to how everyone was already in their seats. She floated up to the stage set up on one side of the classroom, taking her place in the center. "Good morning everyone, I'm Madame Flurrie- your drama teacher! Now, we're going to jump right into our warm-up exercises. Everyone, pick a partner! We'll be doing some mirroring exercises to bond with each other and start us off."

Lindsay glanced at Ludwig from the corner of her eye- sure, she knew lots of people in here and could easily ask to be partners with anyone, but Ludwig? His face looked a little more pale than usual, and even though he tried to put up a tough guy exterior, she could tell that he was really _awful_ with people. She stood and put out her hand, to which he glanced at. "Partners?"

He smiled in joy and what looked like relief, despite standing up without taking her hand. "I'd love to be." Lindsay smiled back at him and the two joined the class in the activity. Lindsay took this chance to glance around at all the partners, most of which were pretty predictable.

Luvbi had chosen to be partners with a sweet shadow siren Vivian, Morton had grouped up with O'Chunks, Norman and Squirps (who had already returned from the office along with the other three), and Dimentio with Larry (who looked a little uncomfortable). Not too far from Larry were Electra and Wolfe, who had become partners with each other because they both wanted to get closer to Larry. Another pair were two girls who were great friends due to their sarcastic and easygoing natures. One girl had pitch black hair and enchanting dark pink eyes who went by the name Amethyst. The other girl had mousy blonde hair with amused yellow eyes hidden behind glasses, named Gabby.

The class was filled with chatter, and Madame Flurrie couldn't wait to start thinking of which musical to perform for their exams- each person in there certainly had their own personality, and she couldn't wait to see their acting skills.

The final bell rang sooner than every student thought, the first day had definitely flown by quickly. The Koopalings all said goodbye to their new friends and met each other at the back of the school, right near Ludwig's car (which was still parked on the grass). They all piled in, this time with no hassle, and drove home, ready to end their exhausting yet thrilling day.


	3. Chapter 2: Tensions Arising

**A/N: Here's the second chapter! This one stumped me a bit, it was a little hard to write about a drama class seeing as I've never taken one and don't plan on taking one throughout the rest of high school. If you guys have any prompts you'd like to see in that class, or even eventually the gym class, feel free to suggest something in the reviews if you'd like, I'd really appreciate it. And, thank you all for the lovely reviews! I'm glad you're all liking it so far, I'm loving writing it again, I love all of these characters and I'm excited to develop them more and more. You guys have an influence on this story too: in the reviews, feel free to tell me what I should work on, or even some plot ideas (though I may not include all), just to keep this story from running dry. I like giving back to people who like what I put out, so, if you'd want to see something like a field trip in one of the classes, or a sleepover, or a party, or anything at all out of the usual, let me know! And, if you really adore this story that much, you're allowed to draw fanart for it, but if you include a character that someone submitted in a review, please try to ask them first if you can. And if you draw Abigail or Lindsay, please ask me first just so I know! You can message me on here, or on my tumblr (boundlessrenegade) and you can also submit any art there! Thank you all for reading this, it means a lot to me. Okay, enough ranting, on to the story!**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

The morning of the second day was a nice one: sunny outside, nice temperature, and everything seemed calm. Luvbi and Mimi sat down in their desks inside of their period 1 classroom- mathematics. The two began to do what they usually do: gossip, tell and laugh at jokes, and _occasionally_ pay attention to what Mr. L had to say. Today, though, their attention was on the three sisters known as the Shadow Sirens. The sisters were named Beldam, Marilyn, and Vivian, and were known to be cruel (then again, at a school in the Darklands, who isn't?). Despite having to work together as a group, the sisters did not always get along, and today was one of those situations.

The three walked into the classroom- Beldam looked furious, Vivian looked terrified, and Marilyn was just neutral as always. "I didn't lose anything, Beldam! I swear! You never gave me your bag to hold for you, you probably left it at home-" Vivian pleaded, trying to get Beldam to reason with her, but all that did was anger her oldest sister even more.

"Excuse me?! Are you accusing _me_ of losing something?" Beldam scoffed, her stare as cold as ice towards her younger sister. "How _dare_ you, you wretched little worm! Just for that, you can't sit with us." She looked around the room and smirked. "And who will be stupid enough to offer to put up with you?" She sickeningly smiled at Vivian, until Mimi spoke up.

"Vivian can sit with us!" Mimi stood up out of her seat, and the Shadow Sirens were shocked. "And, she can sit with us for the rest of the year if she'd like. Better than sitting with you meanies, bullying your own sister like that." Mimi's forest-green eyes narrowed at Beldam, who was stunned, before looking over at Vivian and offered a smile.

Vivian smiled back and rushed over to sit beside Mimi and Luvbi, thankful that she didn't have to deal with her sisters anymore, at least not in this class. "Art thou alright?" Luvbi asked Vivian with concern showing on her face, followed by, "I am sorry that thine sister is so nasty towards thou. I am sick when I do look at her." Luvbi glanced at Beldam glaring from across the room and stuck out her tongue at her, childish as always.

Vivian smiled shyly at the two girls, quite overjoyed at them standing up against her oldest sister, something she didn't think she could ever do. "Thanks you two, I really appreciate it. But, now, I'm worried that she'll be even more mad at me than ever." She glanced down in shame, suddenly regretting having the two girls stand up for her, knowing it'd only anger Beldam. Mimi noticed this and huffed quite loudly.

"Avoid her at your house and at lunch, just sit with us and our friends." Vivian looked up in shock- Mimi and Luvbi were being so kind to her.

"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude or anything,"

Mimi quickly cut her off, "Of course I'm sure! Screw Beldam, let her throw a tantrum all she wants, this is her own fault." She returned Beldam's glare from her own seat, who was looking absolutely furious.

Vivian smiled in joy at the girl's kind words and quickly pulled them into a hug. "Awh, you guys!" She was beyond grateful for them, she could worry about her sister later.

It was soon lunch in the school, and everyone rushed once again to the lunchroom and sat with their friend groups, usually consisting of 4 or 5 people, but one table was only filled with 2 girls- Amethyst and Gabby. They were usually extremely laidback and funny, but _very_ sarcastic, which some people didn't like all too much, so they didn't bother with them. They didn't mind though- the two girls clicked so well, it almost felt as though having anyone around them would ruin it.

Almost.

From across the room, one table in particular was packed to the brim with students: Zip T., Abigail, Lindsay, Mimi, Luvbi, Wendy, and Vivian. Roy's original plan had been to sit with them, maybe try to break the awkward silence that occurred all throughout English class with Abigail, but there was simply no room for him.

He tightened his hold on his lunch tray and scoffed. "Pfft, who'd even wanna sit with a stuck-up celebrity toad, his number one fangirl, and a bunch of girly girls? Not this guy." He scanned the room for other tables to sit at, but all of them seemed to be full.

Except one.

He made his way over and sat at the same table as Gabby and Amethyst, who noticed quite quickly.

"Uh, hey?" Gabby asked the newcomer, raising a brow. Amethyst eyed him warily- she knew of his type, _the flirts_. Did she really want to hang out with someone who thinks they're irresistible?

"However may we help you?" She asked sarcastically, before taking a bite out of her burger, and Gabby stifled a chuckle.

Roy rolled his eyes at her, not in the greatest mood. "Listen, I just needed somewhere to sit, alright? Plus you guys seem chill, unlike some certain redheaded stuck up koopas." He began to glare at the food in front of him, thinking back to Abigail, and Gabby knew right away.

"Abigail Jones, huh?" She smirked as he looked at her in shock. "Yeah, don't worry about her not giving you attention. She's a huge flirt, so she'll be done with Zip before you know it." Gabby informed him as Amethyst rolled her eyes and groaned.

"I hate people like her. Sure she's never given _me_ any problems, but she should commit to one person and not go from guy to guy." Amethyst complained as Roy frantically nodded his head.

"I know right! It makes me sick, honestly." The group chuckled at that, and Roy felt an instant connection with the group. He knew he was going to be good friends with them.

Across the room, back at the overly crowded table, sat Abigail as she noticed Roy sitting with Amethyst and Gabby. She was confused - out of all the people in the room, why sit with them? It's not that she didn't like them, she thought they were okay, but they just didn't seem like Roy's type, not like herself.

This stopped her dead in her thoughts - she was _not_ Roy's type. Roy Koopa, in her book, was a full-of-himself cocky jerk, and she was glad that he wasn't sitting with her. Besides, she had Zip T., and that was enough. Speaking of him, he noticed Abigail's harsh stare at Roy, and lightly tapped her shoulder. "Abby?"

She groaned inwardly - she hated that nickname - and turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"You were staring at Roy, Gabby, and Amethyst," He tried to hold eye contact with her, but she looked away. "Are you alright? He won't bother you anymore, _trust me_." She had a strange feeling about how he worded it, but ignored it, and grinned at him.

"Thanks, Zip. And yeah, I'm okay. Just, ignore all of that." She turned back to her friends who were all talking about homecoming - only 2 weeks away from that day. "So, how's homecoming set-up coming along?" She focused that question onto Luvbi and Lindsay, who were both on homecoming committee and whose faces lit up at the question.

"Oh! Well, we haven't decided on a theme yet, but we have some floating around! I thought of doing an Overthere theme, I've never been there obviously but I've heard it has many beautiful clouds and rainbows, it sounds amazing." Lindsay smiled as she said this right as Luvbi cut in.

"Yea, because I told thee about it! I think yond theme is so overdone, a fairy-tale theme wouldst be enchanting." Luvbi argued with a gleam in her eyes, and then turned to the table for their input. "Prithee, tell us, which theme is better?"

Everyone at the table had mixed votes: for the Overthere theme, Lindsay, Wendy, and Vivian all loved the sound of it. As for the fairy-tale theme, Luvbi, Abigail, and Mimi adored it. It was up to Zip T. to break the tie, and of course he sided with Abigail. Luvbi was overjoyed and Lindsay backed down from her theme idea.

"That reminds me, all of you better be coming." Lindsay glanced at all of her friends and each of them nodded. "Yay! So, anyone have any dates yet?" She grinned mischievously and most of the table shook their heads. The only ones going with someone were, of course, Abigail and Zip Toad, who were going with each other. The rest of the girls either hadn't been asked yet or simply planned on going alone. Well, alright, all of them _wanted_ to be asked by someone. Most of them didn't have one specific person in mind, they just wanted anyone to ask them. Anyone charming and not some sleazeball.

During the whole discussion of dates for homecoming, who else shows up except for Doopliss? It seemed like he enjoyed tormenting Mimi at lunch. Despite the table being packed to the brim, he made room for himself right beside the pigtailed girl herself, who rolled her eyes as usual.

"Doopliss, if you haven't noticed, this table is full. May I help you?" She narrowed her dark eyes at him, who only chuckled at her attempt at being snarky.

"Cute," He sarcastically commented, giving her a smirk. "But leave the rude-ness to me, it doesn't suit you." The duplighost turned back to the rest of the table, stealing a french fry from Abigail's tray of food as Zip T. glared at him. "So, what are we ninnies talkin' about over here?"

Zip T. huffed in annoyance and his glare hardened at him. "Listen, _ninny_ , but we cool people don't make time for people like you. Right, baby?" His attention turned to Abigail, who was gazing off at a certain sunglasses-wearing koopa again. He raised an eyebrow, "Uh, babe? _Hello?_ "

Abigail quickly turned back to the table, "Uh, yeah, sure." Her gaze lowered to her food, and Mimi sighed.

"Zip, thanks, but Doopliss is my idiot to talk smack to, okay? You take care of your own issues and I'll take care of mine, thanks." You could clearly see the annoyance on Mimi's face, which would be even more obvious in a moment.

"Awh, I'm _your_ idiot? I'm touched." Doopliss jokingly placed a hand to his heart- or, where his heart would be if he was human. Duplighosts were basically sheets, so, did he really have a heart?

Soon, but not soon enough for Mimi, the bell for third period rang out throughout the school and everyone rushed to their classes, not wanting to be late of course.

In one of the many gyms in the school was the phys ed. Class held by Coach Daisy. Yes, she was allies with the Mushroom Kingdom and not Darklands, but in the Mushroom Kingdom's high school, Mario had pleaded to be the gym teacher, and of course Peach couldn't say no to him. Daisy wasn't upset, but she had dreamed of being a gym teacher, and so when Darklands offered to let her teach there, she couldn't pass it up.

The students loved Coach Daisy - yes, she could be a little intense, but her classes were always fun. Each week they'd learn to play a new sport and so for the first week of school, she had wanted to spend it playing one of her favourites: tennis. The first day of the week they spent doing warmups after jogging laps, but now it was time for the real game.

"Alright everyone, up and at 'em!" Daisy jogged into the gym with a grin on her face, seeing that nearly her entire class was present and ready for the plans for today. "Everyone, get with a partner, this'll be your tennis partner for the rest of the week up until Friday."

All of the students frantically rushed to be paired with a friend, and the pairs were as followed: Abigail and Zip Toad, Wendy and Mimi, Iggy and Francis, Cheryl and Candy, Boom Boom and Pom Pom, Beldam and Marilyn, and Doopliss with Roy. Some pairs weren't necessarily friends, but still joined up together.

"Okay, everyone sit next to your partner on the bleachers." Daisy instructed, and the class did as told. "So, from today to Thursday, we'll be having a tournament of some sorts. Each team will go against another one, and the victorious team will go on to the next stage. The team who wins will get an A+ for this week, and I _never_ give out A+'s. Also, you get bragging rights. Games are best out of three!"

That was enough to motivate her class. The first round competitions were: Wendy and Mimi VS Beldam and Marilyn, Iggy and Francis VS Cheryl and Candy, and Doopliss and Roy VS Boom Boom and Pom Pom. Since there were uneven teams, one of the winning teams would have to go up against Abigail and Zip Toad, and then the winner would move onto the next round.

Beldam and Marilyn were already on a court, waiting for Mimi and Wendy, who followed soon after. Beldam shot Mimi a dirty look, remembering this morning in Math, and Mimi let out an evil giggle.

"Oh ho ho ho, this'll be fun!" She gripped her tennis racket even tighter, and Wendy was beyond confused.

"Uh, wait what? Why?" Wendy raised an eyebrow at Mimi who chuckled mischievously.

"The reason Vivian was sitting with us was because her sisters were not the nicest to her today, and yeah I told them off, but now? I get to finally give Beldam what she had coming." Mimi informed her, but turned to Wendy when she stayed silent. "We're kicking her in her ghostly behind! Got it?" Wendy laughed at this and nodded, getting ready to serve.

The match started, and it was not a close one at all. It was over in nearly five minutes. Wendy and Mimi had won, getting both points out of the match, and were not good sports about it.

"In your face! Ha ha ha!" Mimi danced around childishly, sticking out her tongue at Beldam, who only grew angrier and angrier. "Take that you meanie!" Wendy and Marilyn didn't dare get involved in the feud between their partners. Wendy thought better of herself than to get into a petty fight, one in which she didn't even have anything to do with, and Marilyn? When Beldam asked her to back her up, all she replied with was "...Guh?", so she wasn't much help there.

Meanwhile, on the court next to them, was Iggy, Francis, Candy, and Cheryl. It was a little awkwardly silent until Iggy cleared his throat. "Uh, so… who's serving?"

Candy quietly spoke up, "We can, is that okay with you Cheryl?" She turned her head to her partner who nodded and answered with a quiet 'sure', being incredibly shy. Candy made the first serve, and it felt as though everyone was holding back a bit, not wanting to try too hard. Except Francis, he just simply wasn't good at sports.

It was a fairly close game, Iggy and Francis won the first point, but Candy and Cheryl won the next two points, thus winning the game. The four all politely shook hands and exchanged smiles.

"Good game, everyone." Iggy shyly smiled as he shook Candy and Cheryl's hands, who both blushed at this gesture. As Iggy and Francis walked away, Candy turned to Cheryl with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Isn't Iggy just the sweetest?" Cheryl giggled a bit at this and nodded.

"Definitely." The two then talked and gushed a bit about how cute and polite Iggy was, not jealous of the other one at all, becoming slight friends.

As for the next match, Doopliss and Roy were up against Boom Boom and Pom Pom who, in all honesty, were not the most talkative, which Doopliss nor Roy minded. This was by far the most intense game, lasting almost 10 minutes. Everyone was determined to win, but in the end, the victors were Doopliss and Roy, who were surprisingly good sports about it.

To their faces.

When it was just the two of them, they snickered and talked about how they knew they'd win all along and were probably going to win the entire tournament.

The final match was between Abigail and Zip Toad, and Candy and Cheryl. Everyone remained polite throughout it, but Abigail and Zip won quite quickly since Zip was determined to win the entire tournament to impress Abigail, who in reality didn't care much about who won and who lost.

By the end of class, Abigail strolled over to Mimi and Wendy, an exhausted and sweaty mess. "Geez, this gym class is more work than I thought it'd be." She wiped the sweat from her forehead and Wendy nodded.

"Yeah, I'm kind of wishing I signed up for a different class than this. Ooh, maybe one of those cosmetology classes!" Wendy sighed, thinking about an entire class dedicated to hairstyling and makeup, while Mimi was confused.

"Um, isn't that with space junk? Like, comets and the universe?" Abigail and Wendy stared at Mimi in disbelief. "...What?"

"Mimi, I love you but I've never heard you say anything as dumb as that." Abigail giggled a bit as she said this, while Mimi gasped.

"What?! Well then, what is it? I'm so confused guys!"

The girls headed back to the change rooms while informing Mimi that _cosmology_ was the study of the universe, cosmetology was for makeup and hairstyling.

Meanwhile, in the male change room, Zip T. was glaring at Roy. He was beyond mad at him. Everything, from his perspective, was going amazing between himself and Abigail for the past 2 weeks. Sure, they weren't dating, but Zip was planning on asking her soon. Or, he _was_ , until that pink-headed koopa came along.

The toad adjusted his sunglasses and fixed his hair up a bit before storming over to Roy, who didn't notice him right away due to the height difference. "Hey, Koopa." Zip called out, and Roy looked down in annoyance.

"What?" Roy didn't particularly like Zip Toad either, he thought that he was just a 'pretty boy' who wasn't Abigail's type at all. He thought that Zip probably didn't even care about her, but he was wrong.

"What's the deal between you and Abby?" Zip glared up at him, crossing his arms over his pink unzipped jacket.

Roy raised his eyebrows at this bold question before focusing his attention back on packing up his bag for the end of the day. "Nothing that concerns you, Toad."

"Uh, actually!" Zip scoffed, "It does concern me. She's _my_ girlfriend, so whatever you two have needs to disappear. Like, now." He glared daggers at Roy who didn't seem to care about Zip. Not one bit.

"We don't have anything, okay?" Roy grabbed his bag and turned away, ready to walk out of the change room. "Besides, even if we _did_ , you two aren't even official." He smirked, and started walking out, before Zip called out back to him.

"If you don't like _her_ , who do you like?" Zip took a step forward and Roy turned back around. He was, at the least, very irritated. Who did this toad think he was? "I saw you hanging out with Amethyst and Gabby today. Let me guess, you like one of those girls?" Zip was attempting to humiliate Roy, assuming he would say no, making him look as if he really was after Abigail.

"Yeah, actually." Roy said these words before he even thought about it - something he had to work on. He had the habit of speaking before thinking things through. "Amethyst."

Zip raised an eyebrow, and grabbed his bag before walking past Roy out of the change room, "Good to know."

Roy was left stunned - at this point, it was just him all alone in the change room. What exactly had he gotten himself into? Why did Zip Toad care so much?

That wrapped up most of their gym class, and as for the drama class?

Everyone was seated in a circle around a small stage, which held Madame Flurrie. Everyone was talking amongst each other, and it took a few minutes for Madame Flurrie to get their attention.

"Ahh! Good afternoon, class. Glad to see you all made it to another day, oh, my, yes!" She grinned at all of them and spun around, being overdramatic as usual, but not in an annoying way. Well, not annoying to anyone except the people that regretted taking this class (Ludwig).

"Now, today, I've decided that we'll all do some acting exercises to get to know each other! Won't that be lovely?" She smiled at all of them, hoping they'd all love her idea as much as she did. She wanted everyone in the class to feel free to be themselves, after all, if they can't be themselves, how will they ever pretend to be other people through acting?

She assigned the students to five different groups, three students per group. "Now, you'll have a few minutes to introduce yourself, get yourselves acquainted, and when the time's up I'll randomly select a group to do some improv! I'll give each group a different theme to base your improvisation on. Now go! Get with your groups!"

The groups were: Luvbi, Gabby, and Morton. Dimentio, Lindsay, and Amethyst. Squirps, O'Chunks, and Lemmy. Norman, Wolfe, and Larry. Electra, Ludwig, and Vivian. The groups were… unusual, to say the least, but Madame Flurrie wanted it that way. She wanted people with different personalities to interact and perhaps clash. She always did love drama.

The first group was Luvbi, Gabby, and Morton. "Alright, you three! I want to see a scene where police officers are chasing a criminal! Break a leg!"

Immediately, Gabby put her hands together as a pretend gun, and pointed it at Luvbi. "Put your hands up!" She talked in a very deep voice, trying her best to look intimidating.

"Wha- _I_ hath to be the villain?" Luvbi muttered and Gabby gave her a look that meant 'yes, now go along with it'. "...Alright. Ha! Thou cannot catch me!" Luvbi ran around the stage before hiding behind Morton, who quickly turned around and put her arms behind her back "Wait, what?!"

"You're under arrest, missy!" Morton pretended to pull out a pair of handcuffs, playing along as if he was a police officer. Gabby strolled over and put a hand on Morton's shoulder.

"Nice arrest, Officer Star!" Referencing the huge star on his face, and he grinned.

"You helped a ton too, Officer, uh… Glasses."

"Beautiful!" Madame Flurrie gave them a standing ovation and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "That was amazing improv. Alright, next group please!"

The second group was Dimentio, Lindsay, and Amethyst. "Okay, for this scene I want to see a hospital scene! Begin!"

"OH NO, HELP! HELP ME!" Lindsay collapsed to the ground, clutching her side.

Amethyst ran up and kneeled beside her, "Uh, miss? Yeah, you okay?" Her acting not being quite the best.

"I'VE BEEN STABBED! AND THE ATTACKER IS ON HIS WAY!" She wailed, before frantically clutching Amethyst's arm. "RUN, LEAVE ME BEHIND! SAVE YOURSELF!" Lindsay then lied down on the floor, pretending to pass out.

"Um, okay?" Amethyst stood up, just as Dimentio pretended to walk into the building, and Amethyst faced him. "How can I-"

Dimentio then started chuckling a bit darkly, then walked up to Amethyst and pretended to stab her. "Sleep tight, little nurse." He turned back to Madame Flurrie and bowed. "And, scene."

While his acting was good, it was a little… _too_ good. The whole scene made everyone feel a little unsettled, but Madame Flurrie still clapped for the group. "Ahem, that was… lovely. Next group please!"

The third group was Squirps, O'Chunks, and Lemmy, and all three of them seemed incredibly excited. "Alright sweeties, now I want to see a funeral scene! Good luck!"

Immediately, O'Chunks turned to the other two. "So which one of us'll be the dead one?"

Madame Flurrie interrupted politely, "Um, this is _improv_ , so don't decide what to do before you do it, just… do it!"

"Oh, right! Uh, okay." O'Chunks scratched his head, not quite knowing what to do. Lemmy and Squirps, however, took charge. Squirps laid down on the ground, pretending to be dead, as Lemmy burst out into tears.

"NOOO! SQUIRPS! You were too young… too young!" Lemmy was kneeling on the ground, and was actually crying. Of course, Squirps noticed and sat up.

"Oh no! Lemmy, Squirps is fine, see?" Squirps grinned at his friend, breaking scene, and Lemmy did the same.

"Good! I was a little worried that you really dropped dead." Lemmy giggled a bit and Madame Flurrie stood up, a little disappointed.

"Scene. Well, that wasn't the _best_ , but that's what this class is for, isn't it? We'll all improve together over time! Next group please."

The fourth group was Normal, Wolfe, and Larry. "Hm, okay, this time I think I'd like to see a wedding scene." Madame Flurrie smiled mischievously as Wolfe muttered under her breath, knowing she'd have to be the bride, then blushed bright red as Larry stood in front of her, ready to be her groom.

Norman took the place of the priest and cleared his throat rather loudly. "Do you, Larry Koopa, take…" He trailed off, not knowing Wolfe's full name. "...Wolfe… to be your wife?"

Larry blushed a bit at the whole situation, and the fact that he noticed Wolfe's blush, which he thought was a bit cute. "I do."

Norman turned to Wolfe, who was shaking in nervousness and slight embarrassment. "And do you, uh, Wolfe, take Larry Koopa to be your husband?"

Wolfe's face was now a dark red, matching her eye colour, and she wasn't able to look either of them in the eye. "Um, sure, yeah, I do." Larry laughed a bit at her wording, not in a rude way.

"Nice, now, if anyone doesn't want these two to be together, speak now or forever, don't, I guess?" Norman didn't quite know the exact wording, but he assumed everyone knew what he meant.

' _I'd love to speak up_ ', Electra thought in her mind, despite it being a pretend wedding. She wished she was up there in Wolfe's place.

Norman noticed the silence and then smirked a bit. "Alright, Larry, you may now kiss the bride."

The room was filled with silence until Wolfe nervously faced Madame Flurrie. "And, scene!" Her face was ridiculously red by now and she just wanted to get off the stage.

Madame Flurrie clapped and smiled, "That was beautiful! Very touching. Time for the last group!"

The last group was Electra, Ludwig, and Vivian. "Okay, your theme will be a classroom, go wild with this one!"

Ludwig stood in front of Vivian and Electra, taking the role of the teacher. "Alright, class, today we will be learning about music!" He was glad - even outside of music class, he still took every chance to talk about music, and Electra groaned.

"Yay, music. Love it so much!" She sarcastically cheered, causing Ludwig to glare at her.

"Miss Electra, you watch your mouth or you'll be put into detention right away." He spoke in a deeper voice, trying to appear threatening, and Electra returned his glare.

"Wow, I'm _so_ scared. Really, I'm shaking!" She smirked noticing him become even more annoyed, causing a few giggles from the audience.

"Uh, guys?" Vivian meekly looked back at forth between the pair. "Maybe we should just learn about music and stop arguing?" She suggested, but backed down when she saw Electra's annoyed glare. "N-nevermind!"

Madame Flurrie sensed the tension and spoke up, "Scene! Okay, uh, that was lovely. Loved the classic rebellious student and strict teacher!"

Only five minutes were left of class, so Madame Flurrie took this opportunity to make an announcement. "Starting this Thursday, which will be tomorrow, me and Ms. Birdo will be starting up our theatre club for after school hours. Just show up if you'd like to sign up. I hope to see all of you there! Have a lovely afternoon!"

Lindsay's face lit up with excitement, and she turned to Luvbi. "Did you hear that?! Oh, I love theatre club. I'm definitely joining."

Luvbi rolled her eyes, having a bad opinion of theatre club since each year they made a huge fuss about how she only talks in early modern english and nothing else, which makes things a bit difficult if they're acting a play that Shakespeare did not write. "Well, thou canst join, but I will not be! Hmph!"

Lindsay sighed, hoping someone would join with her, just as Ludwig and Morton walked over. "Oh, hey guys! Are you joining theatre club? Please say you are!" She pleaded to them, putting on her best cute face, which Luvbi was immune to.

Ludwig sighed, running a hand through his extremely thick hair. How he managed that is a mystery to everyone who has ever known him. "Probably not. Acting isn't really my strong suit, except if it's a classic play." Lindsay sighed at his words, then turned to Morton, waiting for his answer.

"Well, I'd love to, but I kind of agree with Ludwig. I only really like Shakespeare's stuff!" He grinned, but Luvbi frowned.

"Shakespeare's works were _not_ 'stuff'. Art thou truly so dense? His works were… masterpieces!" Luvbi sighed dreamily, having a passion for Shakespeare's 'works'. Morton frowned a bit at her harsh tone.

"Well, _pardon me_." He sarcastically apologized to her who only scoffed. "What even is your name? Luvbi? Well, I personally think you need to calm down occasionally. I had the same problem, I'd talk too much and get too passionate about things, and I'd need to chill out a bit. So, as a way to calm down, I started drinking herbal teas every morning! I recommend them." He smiled at her, truly thinking he was helping her, who only scoffed. Lindsay and Ludwig shared a glance, predicting how Luvbi would be.

" _Herbal teas_? I spit on thine teas! Mayhap thou art the one who needeth to relax. Hmph." She turned away swiftly and stormed off, her usually pale face being a bit more red from anger. While Morton really didn't do anything wrong, Luvbi took things too seriously and really did need to relax occasionally.

And with that, the final bell rang. Everyone seemed to be in a bit of a bitter mood after classes, but they all hoped that the rest of their year wouldn't be as bad or stressful. Some were having good times, some were struggling with crushes, and some were just confused about their feelings. One thing they knew was that they all had lots of time to sort everything out, and they would.


	4. Chapter 3: Excitement and Jealousy

**A/N: First of all I'm sorry this is so long! Immediately after chapter 2 I had started writing this and within a few hours I'd written over half of this chapter. I didn't mean to make this one so long but it just kind of… happened. Again, thank you all for the support, I love hearing back from you guys. I receive emails whenever I get a review and each time I do, I spend a good while smiling over it. It's the best feeling in the world hearing what people think of the work you put out, so thank you all. And, thank you for your suggestions! Miss Mario, thank you for both of your ideas - I really want them to either perform Romeo and Juliet (cliche, I know, but I think it'd be pretty funny to see most of the class complain about not understanding their lines, and to see Luvbi and Morton get really into it), but I was also thinking maybe a musical? I'd love to see them perform 'Heathers' because it's my favourite musical and has an amazing plot line and would fit some characters perfectly, but it's not very school appropriate so I'm on the fence about it. Any suggestions for plays or musicals from anyone is appreciated! Also, this may sound evil, but I** _ **love**_ **your idea about there being a fire in the school. It adds so much drama and I think it'd be a lot of fun to write about, and for all of you to read! Finally, if your OC does not appear too much in this chapter, I'm making sure that next chapter each character will have an entire detailed scene dedicated to them, so look forward to that! Alright, on with the story.**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

It was already Friday, the end of the first week of school, and it was… hectic to say the least. But the Koopalings loved it! They had made friends, enemies, and were having a great time. But, they obviously hadn't met all the students, so Wendy came up with a grand plan on the way to school.

"King Dad's gonna be out of the castle tonight and back tomorrow morning, right?" She asked the rest of her brothers, and Ludwig answered with a quick 'yes'. "Sweet. I'm having a party."

Ludwig nearly stopped driving the car due to shock. "Uh- yeah, no you're not. King Dad's leaving _me_ in charge and I say no. Forget it." After this sentence, every other sibling in the car groaned in complaint.

" _Ludwig_ , I wanna be known as the cute girl who threw an amazing party! Come on, we'll all get to socialize and meet people. Doesn't that sound fun?" Wendy whined. She really wanted to throw this party: she'd get to impress her friends, meet new people, and dress up! And everyone knows how much Wendy loves dressing up.

"Yeah, c'mon dude! Let's do it!" Roy chimed in. He always loved parties, and figured they may as well take advantage of their dad not being home until the next morning.

Ludwig sighed. He didn't want to anger his father, but what could really go wrong? Besides, it'd only be for a couple hours, and it's not like there'd be any illegal activities going on. Even if there were, his dad would probably be proud, being the king of darkness and all that junk.

"...Alright. You guys can throw a party," Everyone in the car began to cheer and holler. "But! I'm not helping any of you with setting up. You can do that yourselves."

Wendy squealed with joy, her eyes lighting up. "Thank you thank you thank you! We promise Ludwig, we'll keep the house under control and everything!" Little did Ludwig know, while Wendy made that promise, her fingers were crossed.

During first period, Ms. Nastasia was droning on about Romeo and Juliet, and how she personally felt that lovers will always find their way back to each other due to fate, but she sounded a little… bitter? Anyways, the class was beyond bored. Abigail couldn't sit still, it was incredibly awkward sitting right next to Roy, who felt the exact same way. He couldn't stop thinking about what he had told Zip T. yesterday, that he liked Amethyst. He barely knew her, but now he had to pretend that he did or else he would look like a liar.

Why did he even lie to begin with? Zip T. thought that if Roy didn't like anyone else, then he must like Abigail, and that's why they've been so weird around each other, which was not true. But if it wasn't, then why did he feel the need to lie when he had nothing to hide?

Roy looked over at Abigail as subtly as possible - maybe this would turn out to be a good thing. Yeah, he could totally give her a taste of her own medicine. She and Zip _always_ flirt with each other, so, now he'd flirt with Amethyst. Surely she'd go along with it… right?

His younger brother, Larry, was also dealing with some 'romance' issues. Well, not quite romance yet, but it was something he couldn't get off of his mind. He thought that Wolfe was really cool - she seemed so confident, and seemed like a good friend. And potentially maybe something more? He did notice her blushing a lot on Wednesday when they had to act out a wedding scene and pretend to marry each other, but then again, she could've just been embarrassed at the whole situation. He wanted to get to know her a bit better, but Larry tended to be a bit awkward and think things over too much. Was he thinking this whole situation over too much as well?

Speaking of looking too far into situations, maybe he was just self-conscious about being the new kid at a school, but he felt as though sometimes someone would be… watching him. And he wasn't completely sure, but wherever he went, a mysterious magikoopa, who he heard is named Electra, always seemed to be there. They had never talked, and maybe he really was just being paranoid, but she's caught his eye. He wanted to get closer to both Electra and Wolfe, but didn't know if they even noticed him.

How wrong he was.

The rest of the english class seemed to be falling asleep - Ms. Nastasia was _still_ going on about how when two people are in love, they can't be separated by any forces at all. She claimed to be talking about Romeo and Juliet, but most of the class felt that she was getting a little too passionate about this subject.

Ludwig really didn't care about this school at all, he knew all of the subjects inside and out, so he was bored out of his mind, as was most of the class. Nobody really wanted to do actual work, but it was equally as boring to be lectured by a teacher with a monotone voice. It was kind of tiring really. They had hoped that the math class was having more fun.

They weren't.

Tensions were extremely high due to Mimi sticking up for Vivian on Wednesday when Beldam was picking on her. Vivian felt awful because she thought she created the tension, but nobody blamed her, not even Beldam. Beldam no longer cared about making Vivian miserable for once, no, now she wanted Mimi to be miserable. And that sneaky witch wouldn't stop until she saw that 'annoying little green girl' cry.

The whole class was waiting with anticipation to see what exactly would happen between the two. Maybe nothing during this class in particular, but eventually, they knew there would be some kind of battle. Mimi was never one to back down from a fight, and Beldam was known for starting them. Maybe Wendy's idea for a party wasn't the worst idea, everyone did need to let off some steam and relax and have fun. Well, that was the plan for the party later that night. Would it really be that simple though?

Lunch came around quite quickly, and Wendy immediately talked to her friends about her party that night.

"So!" She took a seat along with Vivian, Mimi, Lindsay, Luvbi, and Abigail. Zip T. was nowhere to be found, which Abigail found a bit strange, but brushed it off. "I'm having a party tonight at 8, and I hope all of you can make it."

Lindsay gasped in delight. "A party? I love those!" She grinned widely, which Wendy quickly returned. "I'll be there."

Abigail nodded, "I'll come too, I'm always the highlight of parties." She jokingly said, but it was a bit true. Abigail, though a sweetheart to her friends, absolutely loved drama. And boy did she bring it.

Luvbi sighed, "Hm, I guess I will come, I hath nothing better to do." She really did, such as homework that she hated doing, but she secretly loved parties so she couldn't pass it up.

"Ooh, I really love parties too!" Mimi chimed in with her big smile. "I can't not go. I'll be there!" She turned to look at Vivian, who looked as if she was contemplating going or not. "What about you, Viv?"

Vivian bit her lip, not knowing what to do. "I don't know guys… Beldam would kill me if I went to a high school party, but… you know what?" She looked up at them with a small smile. "I'm going! I'm not letting her boss me around any more."

The table cheered for her, proud of her for being a little less scared by her nasty sister. That's when Abigail noticed Roy and Amethyst across the lunchroom, and he had his arm around her. She spat out her water, luckily not getting it on anyone.

"Ugh! Abby!" Lindsay looked at her with concern, and a bit of disgust for nearly spitting her water on her. "What's wrong?!"

Abigail held her gaze on Roy and Amethyst, who were very openly flirting from her point of view. Disgusting. "Since when do _those two_ hang out?"

The group looked over at Roy and Amethyst, and they were a little shocked. They had just met and talked normally on Wednesday and Thursday. They certainly moved a little quickly. Luvbi cheekily decided to tease Abigail a bit. "Art thou a bit… jealous?"

Abigail whipped her head towards Luvbi, glaring harshly. "No! Why would _I_ be jealous?! They can hang out for all I care. I don't care at all. Not a single bit. Besides, I uh, have Zip." She looked a bit saddened at this. It's not that she didn't like him, she did, but maybe just as friends. And now with Roy coming back… it was all too confusing for her.

Now, what was _really_ going on over with Amethyst and Roy? It was a bit weird. Roy came up, sat extremely close to Amethyst (more than she would've liked), Gabby laughed a bit at Amethyst's protests, and Roy told them to 'go along with it'. What did that mean?

They weren't really flirting, he just wanted it to look like it from Abigail's point of view. "So, ladies, guess who's having a party tonight?" He leaned over and stole a fry from Gabby who rolled her eyes playfully.

"Let me take a wild guess… you?" She asked, and he nodded.

"Yep, and you two better be there. Me and my family are inviting everyone in our classes, so it's gonna be great. Don't miss out." He boasted, and Gabby nodded. She thought parties were cool, Amethyst though?

"Parties aren't my thing dude. Sorry."

Roy gaped at her, and then snapped back to reality. "Yeah, well, they are now. You gotta come! Please? I will literally pay you."

Gabby and Amethyst exchanged a look, a confused one. Why did he so desperately want Amethyst to come? That was a bit weird. And the whole invasion of personal space… it seemed like he liked her. A lot. But really, Roy just wanted to invite her to irritate Abigail. He knew she'd be there, and wanted to get back at her for being so lovey-dovey with Zip.

"Uh… well," Amethyst seriously thought it over. Parties really weren't her thing, but money? Now we're talking. "How much?"

"Twenty bucks?"

"I'm in."

Word got out throughout the lunchroom that the koopas were hosting a party at their castle - each koopa had told their friends all about it. Larry had told Dimentio, Doopliss and Norman. Iggy was planning on talking to Francis about it, and mentioning it to Candy and Cheryl when he saw both of them. Lemmy invited Squirps and O'Chunks. Ludwig didn't tell anyone - the poor loner wasn't really friends with anyone, but that was mainly his own fault for being such a grouch. Every student found out about it, and all of them wanted to attend.

Back at the girl's table, unsurprisingly, Doopliss strolled over and sat next to Mimi. "Hey, ladies. What are we discussing today?" He had been feeling a bit snarky today, so he added, "Maybe how Luvbi always looks like a cheap wanna-be ballerina?" He referenced her outfit, which was a white lacy top and a skirt that did somewhat resemble a tutu.

Luvbi glared at him darkly. He always came over here and he was _never_ polite to her. Never! "Hmph, mayhaps we were discussing how thou art an immature jerk?!" She snapped at him. This was _not_ her year so far, she hadn't even seen any cute guys! She had really wanted to find her one and only in high school, and she had no such luck. She was just plain bitter at this point, so instead of fighting with him, she picked her lunch tray up and stormed over to an empty table across the room.

She sighed and sat down miserably. Why had no guys shown any interest in her? She was so cute and beautiful, maybe not the nicest, but people clearly didn't care about that seeing as how Abigail got so many guys following her as if she was a queen bee and them the hive!

"That's a bit rude, don't you think?" Morton came up and sat next to her, and she hadn't realized she was voicing her opinions out loud. "You don't mind if I sit here, right? Everywhere else is a little bit full, and you seemed a little upset. Haven't tried herbal teas?"

She sighed in annoyance, she was not in the mood to deal with this annoying koopa. "Nay, and I will never drinketh such teas. Those will not help." She grumbled, barely loud enough for him to hear, and he felt a bit bad.

"Uh, well, I just really wanted to say sorry about Wednesday Luvbi." She glanced up at him - he was _sorry_? Nobody ever apologized to her after she snapped at them. "I don't really know what I did to upset you, but I guess I did something, and so I'm sorry. You seem really cool, and I don't want us to get off to a bad start." Morton apologized sheepishly, he really did feel bad, and Luvbi became more interested by the second. "Truth be told, I think how you talk is really cool! I've always loved Shakespeare and his, uh, works."

She grinned a bit, but he couldn't see. Someone actually said sorry to her for something they weren't even really in the wrong in, and they complimented her? She lifted her head up and smiled a bit at him. "Well, truth be told, I should not hath taken out mine own issues out on thee. I… am sorry."

That felt a bit unusual to her, Luvbi rarely said sorry to others. But, seeing the look on his face felt nice. It warmed her heart up a bit, and he smiled at her. "Oh, it's alright! At least now we can start on the right foot. I'm Morton Koopa Jr."

The two talked for the rest of lunch, and they surprisingly bonded a bit. Luvbi was surprised, Morton was actually pretty intellectual and sweet. He even invited her to the party him and his family were hosting that night. She definitely wanted to attend now.

Back at the girls table once more, Doopliss scoffed. "Geez, what's her problem?" Which earned a glare from Mimi.

"Y'know Doopliss, it wouldn't hurt to be a little nice to my friends once in awhile! I don't mind you being rude to me because that's what our friendship is, but don't rain on my friend's parades." She lectured him before looking down at her food with a harsh glare.

"Awh, c'mon Mimikins, I'm sorry!" He apologized, but unlike Morton's apology, he didn't really mean it. However, he earned no reply from Mimi, and he knew he was being given the silent treatment. "...Mimi, really? Oh come _on_! My insult wasn't even that harsh. Like really, calling her a cheap ballerina? That's why she's sooo offended? She actually takes ballet, so it's kind of true!"

Still no answer.

"Talk to me sweetie!" He pleaded, and she looked up and scowled.

"Don't call me that!" She yelled, but he only laughed, obviously teasing her.

"Oh what, so when we're actually going to date I'm not allowed to call you that?" His tone was sarcastic, but he really meant it. Mimi's glare softened for a second before hardening again.

"I'm sorry what?"

"Nevermind." He brushed it off and stood up. "Well. You're all a bit boring today, to be quite honest. I guess for once I'll go chill with my crew. See ya!" As he walked away, Mimi growled.

"Ugh! He gets on my nerves so badly sometimes." Mimi complained, and Abigail smirked.

"You two already sound like a married couple."

"Oh shut up!"

As Doopliss walked away, he could still hear the bickering girls and chuckled quietly to himself. What he had with Mimi was a bit complicated, at least from his perspective. For the past year and a half or so, they've been 'frenemies', and he didn't see her as anything more. Well, not until the end of last year. There was an end of school party, and they spent most of their time together. He likes to think they bonded a bit. Maybe that's when he started feeling a slight attraction towards her.

He didn't know if she felt the same though. Not until Dimentio got a hold of Mimi's diary and told Doopliss about a certain entry. Apparently, to Mimi, Doopliss' eyes were 'enchanting' and she was very confused on how she felt. So was Doopliss. But he could settle that out later. Maybe ask her out in a surprising way? He didn't know, he wasn't really the type to get all mushy with that romantic junk.

He took a seat at his usual table along with Larry, Norman, and Dimentio. "'Sup guys."

"Hey dude!" Larry grinned at him. "Let me guess, did you go over to annoy Mimi again?"

Doopliss smirked a bit at this. "Yeah, it's like a hobby y'know? Kind of ticked off Luvbi though." He pointed over to the nimbi who was currently conversing with Morton.

"...She doesn't look that 'ticked off' to me, glad she's feeling better." Norman smiled. He didn't really like to see people upset, even if he didn't particularly like them.

Dimentio nodded, and then noticed a certain magikoopa looking over at the group. As usual. In fact, it was Dimentio who first pointed out to Larry that Electra seemed to follow them around a lot. "Oh Larry, looks like you caught someone's attention, again."

The four males turned to look at Electra, who tried her best to play it off as if she was just simply looking around the room, but they all knew what she was really up to. "So, you gonna go talk to her or what?" Doopliss eyed Larry, who looked quite unsure.

"Yeah, it's best to just start up a conversation with her!" Norman agreed with Doopliss.

Larry took a deep breath before standing up. "I'm going for it." He turned around and tried to casually walk over to her, who noticed him coming over. She was unprepared for this - what was she supposed to say to him?!

He cleared his throat and stood behind a seat. "Um, Electra, is it?" He asked her, and she nodded a bit shyly. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

She looked a little taken aback, losing her confidence a bit, but not wanting that to show. "Go ahead."

He took a seat, and the two sat in silence. It was a bit awkward, neither of them knowing what to say. They could also feel the eyes of Larry's friends watching them as if they were the most popular TV show on the air. Larry was about to speak up and say something, but just as luck would have it, the bell rang signalling that third period was about to begin. Electra stood up and began to gather her things, but Larry quickly asked her, "Do you want to walk to drama class together?"

Electra blushed a bit and smiled, "I'd love to." She was beyond thrilled - her crush was talking to her and asked to walk with her to their class? Today was her lucky day! She really wanted to go to the Koopa's party that night, and was planning on it. However, she hoped that her 'rival', Wolfe, wouldn't be there. She wanted to spend the night talking to Larry.

Wolfe, though, had a different idea. She was definitely going to attend the party and 'casually' bump into Larry, then strike up a conversation with him. She wanted to at least befriend him before making a move, so she knew that the party would be a perfect opportunity for that.

Third period started, and the entire gym class was ecstatic talking about the Koopa's party later that night. Everyone was wondering what exactly would happen there, and wondered how many people would end up being there. Wendy was talking about it with Mimi and Abigail, but the latter kept looking around the gym every second. "Abigail?" Wendy asked, and Abigail quickly turned to face her. "You okay?"

Abigail sighed, brushing a bit of her hair out of her face. "Not really, I haven't seen Zip at all today, and he didn't seem sick or anything yesterday. I hope he's alright."

Mimi questionably looked at her before piping in, "He was in math today.", which caught Abigail's attention.

"Wait, what?" She looked down at Mimi and raised an eyebrow. "So, where did he go during lunch? And is he seriously skipping this class?" To which Mimi shrugged.

"I guess so."

"Well, what the heck am I gonna do now?" Zip had been Abigail's partner for the tennis tournament, and today was the final showdown - unsurprisingly, it was those two against Doopliss and Roy, who just happened to be making their way over to the three girls now.

"Where's your partner, Abby?" Roy asked with a slight smirk, knowing that Zip was nowhere to be found, and Abigail narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well, do you see him anywhere around here?" She gestured around the room, and obviously, he wasn't there. "No? Then that answers your question." She never really had the patience to deal with Roy, but today, she was not in a good mood. Zip really abandoned her when it was the final tennis game, she couldn't believe him.

Roy felt a bit bad for her, but also found the situation funny and a bit predictable. He really didn't like Zip all that much. "Well, that's just the kind of guy Zip is."

Mimi scoffed a bit at this, she happened to think Zip was a good guy. "Like you're any better!" She stepped in front of Abigail and glared up at Roy. "Even if it's just her, Abigail will still take you down. Both of you!"

Doopliss laughed a bit at this, rolling his eyes. "Mimi, sorry to tell you but she's going down." This, of course, started a huge debate between the two, who really were fighting like an old married couple.

"Uh, no she isn't, Abigail's super athletic!" "Even if she is, it's the two of us against her, she doesn't stand a chance." "Yes she does, it's a sporty legend against two dweebs. She's going to win." "Awh Mimi why can't you cheer _me_ on for once?" "Because you're super annoying and you don't need any more confidence, you're cocky enough. Someone's gotta put you in your place."

"Guys!" Wendy cut the two off in annoyance, which Abigail and Roy were thankful for (along with the rest of the class who could barely hear each other talking because of how loud Mimi and Doopliss were). "Can you not fight for maybe, I dunno, two minutes? It's like every time you two see each other you argue! Just, chill."

Roy laughed a bit at this. "You're the one talking about 'chilling'? You throw a tantrum over the tiniest things!" Wendy shot him a dirty look after that, and Coach Daisy interrupted all of them.

"Ahem! Hi, yeah, sorry to interrupt your little conversation," Daisy sarcastically said. "But it's time for the two final teams to have their final game to decide the winners, or winner."

Abigail quickly protested, "Uh, Coach! My partner isn't here, can we postpone it until Monday?"

Coach Daisy thought it over for a minute, then shook her head. "Sorry! We've got plans for Monday, we're starting a new unit. The final match has to be today." Daisy would've let them postpone it, but they already wasted a day - yesterday. The matches took a bit longer than she liked, so they had to save to the final match for today and throw away the plans Daisy had originally made. They couldn't push it back any longer.

Abigail sighed in frustration - she had to do the final match all alone. If Zip Toad planned to come to the party tonight, if he had even heard about it, she was going to kill him when she would see him. Okay, not _literally_ kill him, but she'd confront him about it. Whenever she needed him, he wouldn't be there, and she was getting a bit tired of it.

She got ready to play on one side of a court, and Doopliss and Roy got settled on the other side. They were feeling pretty confident, and they had every reason to be, they hadn't lost a match so far and the two partners were both there.

The match, surprisingly, lasted a good ten minutes. It was intense, the boys were surprised at how well Abigail was playing without Zip Toad. It wasn't that they expected her to be bad, but they didn't think she'd be able to play against two others. In the end though, she still lost. It was an unfair advantage, but it still counted.

She wasn't upset that she lost - okay, maybe she was a _little_ upset - but she was mainly upset that Zip completely abandoned her for this. It wasn't a huge deal, but it still hurt Abigail a bit, especially when she knew that he was at school in the morning. Plus, he'd been talking about beating Roy all week - why would he want to miss that now?

She angrily pulled out her phone and texted him a quick message, ' _Where are u? Mimi says she saw u in the morning, so whyd u ditch gym? Thx to that, we just lost the tennis tourney._ ' Within seconds, she got a reply.

' _Busy_ '. Oh he did not just give her a one-word answer. She sighed in frustration - he was never there for her, and this was just a small example.

She quickly sent back, ' _Come to the koopas party 2night 8_ ' and he left her on read. She angrily shut her phone off - why was he acting so cold all of a sudden, and what was his excuse for skipping? He had better show up at the party that night, or he'd be a dead toad, she'd make sure of it.

For the rest of class, since Coach Daisy really didn't have much planned until Monday, she let them use whatever equipment they wanted for free time, they just had to be doing something.

Iggy was hanging out with Francis and throwing around a frisbee, talking about the normal nerdy things. The latest upcoming video games, what were the best sci-fi TV shows nowadays, usual stuff, until Iggy brought up the party later that night. "You should come, Francis! I think it'd be good for you to get out of your house aside from school."

Francis sighed - he was a geeky chameleon, would he have any place at a party? "Nerrr… I don't know… I'd rather stay home and watch 'Starship X-Naut'." As he said this, Candy and Cheryl shyly walked up to the both of them.

"Um, hey guys!" Candy said with a smile, and Iggy smiled back at the both of them. "What's up?"

"Oh, uh, I was just talking to Francis about how my sister's throwing a party tonight at our castle, and we can invite anyone we want. Are you guys interested in coming?" Iggy asked them, slightly tilting his head (which both of the girls found adorable).

"Of course, I'd love to!" Candy nodded with a blush, before turning to Cheryl.

"Yeah, I'll come too, sounds fun." Even though the two girls were shy, they thought it'd be nice to hang out with Iggy… and Francis too if he was coming, who just happened to speak up then.

"O-oh! Yeah! I'm going too!" He turned towards Iggy with a silly smile on his face. "Count me in." In all honesty, he thought that Candy and Cheryl were incredibly cute, but he knew the way they both looked at Iggy. He knew he didn't have a chance, but he figured maybe he'd try to give it a shot with both of them.

As for the drama class, Madame Flurrie had assigned them once more into groups to work on some 'tableau's, which were sort of like freeze frames. The groups were allowed to think of a theme for their scene, and then had to practice how they'd freeze for the scene. Instead of having five groups of three, there were only three groups of five.

The first group consisted of Squirps, Ludwig, O'Chunks, Morton, and Lindsay. The group gathered together, and immediately started discussing what theme they should do. They threw around a few ideas, but none of them really appealed to the group, until Squirps spoke up. "Ooh! What if we do a cheerleading theme, squirk? I think it'd be fun!"

Lindsay's eyes brightened up, and she grinned widely. "Yes! Let's do it! C'mon, it's so original and it'd be really fun."

The other males in the group were unsure, but after a few minutes of protesting, they gave up and started to practice the pose they'd do. It was a bit messy at first, but in the end, they nailed it. They just hoped they'd nail it for the actual presentation.

The second group was made up of Larry, Dimentio, Electra, Amethyst, and Wolfe. At first, everyone was silent, but Amethyst eventually sighed rather loudly and asked which theme they should do. They decided on a pretty simple theme - beach. Nobody _really_ wanted to do it, but it was simple and easy. All they had to do was either pretend to be tanning, or pretend to be splashing in the water. They didn't practice too much, just made a bit of small talk. Wolfe and Electra, of course, talked with Larry a bit, leaving Dimentio and Amethyst alone. Those two, to put it gently, didn't get along too well. Amethyst felt a bit unsettled because of how creepy Dimentio tended to be, and all she wanted was the day to end.

The last group was Vivian, Norman, Lemmy, Gabby, and Luvbi. They spent most of their time discussing which theme to do - Norman and Lemmy wanted to do upbeat happy themes, but Luvbi was difficult and was set on doing some kind of ballroom scene. It was weird, and Gabby made sure she knew that, which started a small argument between the two. In the end, thanks to Vivian being level-headed, she calmed everyone down and they finally decided on a theme, which was 'party'. It was upbeat and happy like Norman and Lemmy wanted, and Luvbi could pretend to dance like she wanted to.

Finally, it was time for all the groups to present, the 'cheerleading' group going first. Madame Flurrie would give each group 10 seconds to get into their poses, and had to hold it for 30 seconds.

The group quickly got into their pose- Ludwig, Morton and O'Chunks were lined up in a row and above their heads they held Lindsay and Squirps, who held their arms up to look like they were cheering. Asides from the slight trembling, they held the pose almost perfectly and Madame Flurrie was pleased with them (and a little impressed).

The second group was a bit less prepared. If you didn't know they were pretending to be at the beach, you wouldn't be able to guess that. Amethyst was laying on the ground along with Wolfe, Electra was pretending to splash Larry and Larry pretended to splash her (which looked a bit weird since there was no water), and Dimentio was… nobody really knew what exactly he was doing, he was just kind of sitting down. Madame Flurrie was a bit confused and could tell they didn't practice, but still gave them an okay mark.

The last group was all over the place. Honestly, nobody could tell what the hell they were doing, since 'party' was very vague. Luvbi was fist-bumping, or at least it looked like it. Norman and Lemmy were just facing each other (assumably talking?), Gabby was pretending to eat a slice of pizza (which looked a bit unnatural due to not actually having a slice of pizza), and Vivian was too shy to do anything outrageous, so she was in a disco-dancing position. It was very confusing but Madame Flurrie still loved it and gave them a good grade. She said it captured the essence of a true highschool party - nobody really knowing what they're doing and it all looking like a mess. It was a bit insulting, but the group took it.

Just as the last group finished up, the final bell rang, and everyone ran out of school excitedly. They were excited for later that night - the Koopa's party. They hoped that it would be a good time and there'd be no drama or fights, but we all know how parties usually go, and this one would not be an exception.

There's nothing _but_ drama and fights.


	5. Chapter 4: The Koopa's Party

**This chapter contains mentions of alcohol and one curse word.** **I know this fic is rated T, so that shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but I still wanted to put a warning here just in case because I know there are people other than teens who will read this despite the rating. Besides, I just find it appropriate to put a small warning for anyone who could be uncomfortable with that content.**

 **A/N: Welcome back to another chapter! First things first: thanks once more to Miss Mario who drew a beautiful picture of Abigail and Lindsay, which is now the cover photo for this fanfic! Okay, this chapter was personally really fun to write (you'll see why). I'm excited for you all to read this one! This chapter is heavily influenced by some songs from the Be More Chill soundtrack (again, you'll see why, not saying which ones just yet due to spoilers, I'll include the songs that inspired parts of this chapter at the end). Also, I absolutely hate Abigail in this chapter but I swear, she'll turn things around! Well, maybe. Not every person in life redeems themselves y'know? You'll just have to wait and see. Again, thank you all for the lovely reviews! I love receiving feedback on how to improve my writing, and I take every review into consideration. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

It was around 7:30 PM that Friday night, and all of the Koopalings were running around the castle frantically, making sure everything was ready for the party in half an hour. Well, everyone except Ludwig, who was relaxing on a couch drinking a root beer, watching his siblings run around and finding it hilarious.

They were finishing up some last minute things - making sure they had enough snacks, setting up some fruit punch and various sodas, and finally putting on some music. They were all set, and nobody was even supposed to show up until another half hour!

And that is when someone knocked on the door.

Roy was the closest one to the door and sighed. Whoever this was, was incredibly early. He grumbled to himself and trudged over to the door - who would come _this_ early?

The pink koopa opened the door and, of course, the early person was Lindsay. She was wearing a yellow t-shirt with white around the collar and hem of the sleeves under a pair of blue short overalls. Instead of her usual bun, her curly hair was tied up in a ponytail. She greeted him with a smile and stepped inside. "Hey, Roy! Nice party you guys are having."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Uh, yeah, thanks, but it hasn't even started yet. And it won't for another half hour. So…" He trailed off, not wanting to be rude, but wanting her to realize that she was a _bit_ early. Well, she realized, but didn't really mind.

"Oh, that's alright! I can help you guys set up." She walked straight past Roy and noticed Ludwig lounging on the couch. "Hey, Ludwig!" She strolled over to him, who lit up and smiled at her.

Roy was about to shut the door when yet another person came. Mimi nearly bounced up the doorstep, in awe of the huge castle, before noticing Roy at the door. She was wearing a dark blue dress with laced long sleeves. "Oh, hey Roy, nice party!"

Roy sighed before stepping to the side, letting her in. "Yeah, Lindsay said the same thing."

After that, people starting flooding through the door. It seemed as if their entire grade was there, and maybe a few lowerclassmen. Within the next hour, the gigantic castle they had was filled with people. The castle's minions were working hard to try to keep the teenagers out of the family's bedrooms, and many were trying to keep little Bowser Junior company (who felt a little left out but wouldn't admit it).

People were all over the place - either hanging out with their friends, grabbing some punch (who someone might have spiked), making a mess, or just kind of standing around. It was a mess, and everyone was loving it. Some people were even outside swimming in the Koopa's inground swimming pool, despite not bringing bathing suits.

A few people gathered inside the pool were O'Chunks, Lemmy, Lindsay, and Vivian. They were all floating around on a few of the many floaties the Koopas had for the pool and were having a water gun fun. It was everyone for themselves, and all of them were surprisingly well at water gun fights.

Vivian leaned down on her floatie, wrapping one of her arms around it and aimed her water gun with her other arm at O'Chunks. Lindsay noticed and decided to team up against O'Chunks, which didn't really work too well.

O'Chunks stood up on his floatie, grabbed two water guns, one for each hand. He aimed each one at Vivian and Lindsay, and managed to hit both of them, knocking them off of their floaties.

"Agh!" Lindsay fell down into the water before coming up laughing. Vivian didn't exactly 'fall' off of her floatie, but instead tipped the whole thing over along with herself.

Now, it was a duel between O'Chunks and Lemmy. Let's just say it took a while. O'Chunks was like a tank, nothing could knock him off of his floatie, and Lemmy was the master at dodging. Eventually though, O'Chunks shot and hit Lemmy once with water, and down went the tiny koopa into the water. He came back up to the surface laughing though, and the four of them agreed on a second round.

In the Koopa's kitchen, there was a group doing some jello shots - Morton had prepared them and was giving them out Gabby, Larry, and Doopliss. They were having the time of their lives, all of them were fairly laidback so they were fine with doing a couple jello shots. After the shots, Morton couldn't help but laugh a bit, causing Gabby to arch a brow. "What's so funny?"

Morton couldn't stop laughing, and he had to grip onto a chair for support, before accidentally falling onto the floor, causing Gabby, Larry and Doopliss to laugh too. They were so confused, but they were all in a laughing fit around the table. Morton wiped a stray tear before straining out, "If I put a milkshake in one yard… and a cold one in another one… where would the boys go?"

Gabby couldn't help but laugh even more at his random question, and she too fell over on the floor. Nobody could catch their breath, and Morton yelled out a bit more frantically, " _Where would the boys go?!_ "

Luvbi passed by and rolled her eyes before mumbling to herself, "Idiots." Though she couldn't help a silent giggle at the ridiculous question.

They stayed like that for a good while until Larry managed to stutter out, "I think the boys would much rather go for a jello shot."

Gabby laughed a bit again before getting up and widening her eyes. "Wait. Dudes. Cold milkshake-flavoured jello shots!" And thus, the group burst out laughing again, Morton knocking over the empty tray of what he used to place the jello shots on.

In the upstairs hallway, Wolfe was walking around, unsure of where to go. She really wanted to talk to Larry and get to know him a bit better, but she couldn't find him in this huge house. Letting out a sigh of disappointment, she went inside a room for some peace and quiet. She turned the light on in the room and let out a yell of surprise, realizing it was occupied.

"U-uh, sorry!" Inside the room was Iggy, and this was his room. Lab equipment was messily placed around the room, and Wolfe wasn't a total expert at science but at least she knew this was hazardous, and possibly flammable. "Dude, this room isn't safe. Like at all."

Iggy sighed before standing up from a lab stool. "Yeah… can you leave please? I thought I locked that door." He seemed a little anxious, and Wolfe crossed her arms and leaned against the door.

"You okay?"

"Parties aren't my scene, plus I can't find any of my friends."

Wolfe nodded her head in understanding. "Yeah, I came here to talk to a certain person but I can't seem to find them."

"Well," Iggy took a step forward. "We can go walk around together if you want, I do know my way around here after all. And then maybe we can both find our friends without looking lame wandering around a party all alone."

Wolfe thought about it for a second, not knowing whether to fully trust someone she's never met, but she nodded her head. He was Larry's brother, after all. The two left the room leaving it unlocked, and as they walked away, a certain someone slipped into the highly flammable room with a pack of matches.

Back downstairs, Electra was also looking to talk to Larry. She was walking around the highly cramped living room and nearly ran into someone. "Oh, sorry!" She glanced at who it was and she recognized him as Norman from her drama class.

He regained balance over his red solo cup, spilling a bit of the drink on the ground. "Eh, it's alright, I can just get some more!" He grinned at her a bit too happily for her liking, and she awkwardly nodded. "You want any?"

She shook her head frantically. "No! I, uh, am not a fan of alcohol."

"Oh, it's non-alcoholic." He glanced down into it. "I'm pretty sure it's ginger-ale, so nope, don't think there's any alcohol in there!"

She still shook her head, carefully stepping around him. "I'm alright, thanks - uh, wait, you're friends with Larry right?" His smile instantly dropped, and he shrugged.

"Kinda."

That answer was good enough for Electra. "Do you know where he is?"

He shook his head, looking away. "Nope." His answer seemed a bit cold and he walked away. He didn't necessarily like Larry, but they had the same group of friends, so he didn't know what exactly they were. Whatever, Norman didn't want to bother himself with that. He adjusted his bowtie and continued to walk around the party.

Ludwig wasn't one for parties, so he chose to reside in their theatre, not the one for movies but the one for plays. To his surprise, someone was already there. A certain yellow and purple clothed jester. "Dimentio."

The jester glanced over at Ludwig, his mask looking even more chilling in the spotlight where he was standing on stage. What had he been doing before? Ludwig felt a chill run up his spine. Dimentio bowed on stage, the bells on his hat jingling. "Master of dimensions, pleaser of crowds, it is I, Dimentio!"

"Yes, I established that." Ludwig took a few steps forward, his tone cold. "What exactly were you doing in here?"

Dimentio straightened up, and his mask was casting a haunting shadow. "I didn't know this area was off-limits." The blue-haired Koopaling shook his head, and Dimentio grinned even wider under his mask. "Good. I always did have a thing for theatre, you know." He turned his back to Ludwig, who was standing there with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, I know. We're in the same drama class."

"I know." Dimentio chuckled a bit before hopping off the stage. "I can tell you'd like to be alone, so I suppose I'll go hang out with somebody else."

And with that, he left the theatre. Ludwig was a bit confused, what was Dimentio doing prior to him entering, and why was he acting suspicious? He always was a freak. God, Ludwig hated parties.

Near the punch bowl, Abigail was hanging out with Wendy. Abigail was wearing a white off-the-shoulder long sleeved shirt with a simple black skirt. She was currently complaining to Wendy about Zip. "I mean, he was talking about us winning the tennis tournament in gym _together_ , and then he just skips the class! Oh, and then, telling me that he was busy? I mean, what kind of guy _is_ he?" She was beyond irritated, and took a sip out of her drink, as Wendy nodded.

"I know, that's ridiculous! He's so weird."

Abigail nodded, and took another sip. "Yeah. I bet he won't even show up to this party."

The two began to walk away, and Abigail noticed Amethyst and Gabby. ' _Great, of course Amethyst had to show up._ ' She thought to herself. Amethyst was wearing a burgundy tank top under an unbuttoned off-white flannel shirt, along with some black jean shorts. Gabby was wearing a simple faded green t-shirt with some ripped blue jeans - was that a small piece of red jello smeared on her knee?

Abigail didn't like Amethyst very much, not after her hanging out with Roy lately. Oh, and seeing them flirt today? Abigail was a very jealous person, definitely her weakest point. She had come up with a plan - not a _good_ one, but after having a bit of the punch and being extremely irritated? She wasn't thinking straight. Not at all.

Before Wendy knew it, Abigail was walking over towards Amethyst very casually, so of course she followed her friend. In the blink of an eye, Abigail 'tripped' and spilled her bright red drink all over Amethyst.

"Oops!"

Abigail stood straight up, and looked at Amethyst, who was glaring at her. Before she could even say anything, Gabby cut in, "Oh that did _not_ just happen." Gabby knew that Abigail wasn't clumsy, and by the look on her face, she didn't seem too sorry. And Amethyst was thinking the same thing.

"I'm so sorry!" Abigail placed her, now empty, glass down on a nearby table, ignoring the fact that everyone was watching the two. "Next time I guess I should pay a little more attention, I didn't even notice you there."

Amethyst scoffed and crossed her arms. "Oh really? Are you that egotistical, that you don't pay attention to any _but_ yourself?"

Abigail laughed a bit at this, but it was sarcastic. "Awh, cheer up. Maybe go see Roy, he seems to enjoy making you happy, hm?" Roy was nearby watching in slight amusement. He knew Abigail was jealous, and wanted to see how this would all play out.

That's when it all clicked for Amethyst. "Is that what this is about?" Abigail raised an eyebrow at this, and Amethyst continued. "I know. You're jealous that a boy doesn't care about you anymore, isn't that it? And, even though you have a literal celebrity crushing on you, along with so many other guys that you won't even bat an eyelash at, you still want more attention! Because that's the kind of sad, insecure person you are. Maybe you should quit hopping from guy to guy-" She was cut off by Abigail's tightened fist connecting with her cheek, causing her to stumble in shock before punching her back.

And that is when everyone lost their shit.

Abigail and Amethyst were in a fist fight - not a catty fight where they barely hit each other. No, they were punching, scratching, and kicking. Everyone was too afraid to step in. Some people (like Gabby) were cheering them on, some were video-taping it. The fight only got separated when Wendy literally stepped in between them and pushed them apart.

"Enough! This fight is over!" She held them apart as some people booed, to whom she shot a glare at. The two girls she held apart were looking awful. Amethyst had a black eye, and her cheek was bleeding. Abigail had a few scratches on her face, and her nose was bleeding. Wendy sighed and stepped away. "Guys, maybe you should just go home. You don't have to if you don't want to, but you both look like death."

Roy stepped up to the scene, and Amethyst immediately glared at him. "Is this what you wanted, Roy?" He looked a bit shocked at her harsh words - what did _he_ do?

"What?"

"You paid me twenty bucks to come here, and for what? To get your crazy ex-but-not-officially-an-ex to throw a drink at me and then beat me up?" Amethyst was practically yelling at this point, just fed up with everything and everyone.

Roy shook his head, "What? No! I didn't plan for this to happen."

Amethyst scoffed and turned around, heading for the door. "Don't even talk to me, it's obvious you just wanted to make her jealous. Go be with her, until she drops you for the next guy."

She stormed out of the party, and everyone slowly went back to normal. Except Abigail. She ran off, obviously feeling guilty. She was just too confused about everything. She brushed past everyone and ran into a nearby bathroom to hide out, tears streaming down her face. She locked the door behind her and leaned against it.

She felt awful - she wasn't heartless, sometimes she just couldn't control her feelings and actions. Then again… she thought back to everything Amethyst said. Did Roy know that everything would happen like this?

Abigail's body began to shake, and she sobbed even more. Nobody came after her, and she was glad. She felt like she could curl up into a ball and die at any moment. Roy didn't care about her feelings, or about Amethyst's feelings. He was a bully that liked seeing girls fight over him.

And Zip! He was supposed to be there for her, but he never was. Especially not now, when she needed someone the most. She checked her phone and sighed - no calls from anyone. Not even a text asking 'hey are you alright'? She figured she deserved this, sitting alone crying her eyes out while her nose was bleeding and she was in utter pain.

She was broken out of her thoughts when someone gently knocked on the door. Abigail silently crawled away from the door, and someone spoke up. "U-uh, hello? Anyone in there?"

Abigail didn't recognize the voice - who was it? It sounded kind of feminine. "...Go away please."

"Oh, Abigail?" The voice seemed to brighten up a bit, and then become concerned. "Are you okay?"

Abigail raised an eyebrow, contemplating opening the door. "Who are you?"

It was silent for a second, and the voice spoke up once more. "Um, my name's Candy. I'm in your gym class, and we've never really talked but… well, I saw the fight you were in and, uh, well I just wanted to ask if you're okay."

Abigail quickly opened the door and let Candy inside. She was wearing a soft pink dress and looked really concerned for Abigail, who quickly hugged her and sobbed into her shoulder after shutting the door again. Candy was super shy, but she couldn't just leave her alone while she seemed to be having a breakdown.

While Candy was in the bathroom, her friend Cheryl was walking around feeling a bit clueless. She was looking for anyone she considered at least an acquaintance- basically either Candy or Iggy. Candy and her were quickly bonding since they were both somewhat similar, and she still thought Iggy was a very sweet koopa.

Lost in her thoughts, she accidentally bumped into Francis - one of Iggy's best friends, a dorky chameleon. "Oh - uh - sorry."

Francis blushed, he thought Cheryl and Candy were both very cute and wanted to get to talk to them without Iggy being in the way. "No problem Cheryl!"

Cheryl looked around a bit awkwardly, not quite knowing his name, before mumbling, "Um, you wouldn't have happened to see Iggy anywhere, have you?"

Francis' face fell, and he shook his head. "Haven't seen him, but uhhh, we can go look for him together!" This was a lie. Last time he saw Iggy he was walking around with some other 'babe' as Francis thought, and they were headed to the living room. "We can go look around the bedrooms upstairs, he might be around there."

Cheryl shakily nodded her head before adjusting her outfit, she was wearing a simple green dress which, Francis noted, brought out her green eyes. He tried to make slight conversation with her, but she was so shy and truth be told, didn't feel quite comfortable around him. It was like he had some kind of script prepared for talking to girls, the conversation didn't flow naturally. All she wanted was to either talk with Iggy or Candy.

Back with Candy, she spent the next half hour in the warm bathroom just talking everything out with Abigail - how Abigail felt about Zip, Roy, why she started the fight, and what she was going to do next. It was nice, Candy was glad to be there for her, and Abigail was glad to have someone talk to her about everything happening. It was relaxing for the most part, until someone banged on the door harshly.

"Hey! Anyone in there? Get out!" The voice sounded frantic, and neither of the girls recognized it. Abigail sighed in frustration, thinking someone just had to use the bathroom urgently.

"There's lot of bathrooms in this castle, find another one!"

"No, you need to get _out_ , right now! There's a fire!" The person yelled out again before running away, and the girls suddenly heard many more people screaming in fear. Their eyes widened and they opened the door before running in the direction the crowd was running as well - to the front door.

It was around 1 in the morning, and many people stood outside, not knowing what to do. Screams were heard from everywhere, and some people were crying from the stress. Friends were gathered together, shaking and hugging each other. Some were stunned, some were freaking out, but the question on everyone's minds was: who started it, and why?

"Crap!" Someone yelled out throughout the crowd, and everyone turned to look at them - it was Larry Koopa, and he looked terrified. "Did _anyone_ grab Bowser Junior from his room?!"

Everyone was silent, and began looking around - the smallest Koopa kid was nowhere to be seen. The last time anyone saw him, some servants were babysitting him in his room. Since he was the King's secret favourite, his room was at the top of the castle pretty isolated from everyone, like a classic princess tower in fairytales. Larry inwardly cursed and ran into the castle at top speed.

"Larry!" Ludwig called after him in shock. He couldn't believe it - yes, okay, someone had to rescue Bowser Junior but Larry wasn't exactly the strongest out of the many people there and he was not ready at all to deal with any fire. As the oldest brother, of course Ludwig was worried about all of them.

Everyone was watching the castle with wide eyes - Larry had to have been insane to go in there. Some people were worried, but most people were just watching in anticipation, not really all too concerned. Some were even videotaping it for social media, and Roy snapped.

"Okay, my brothers are in there in a _fire_ , and some of you are video tapin' this moment? That's sick!" He complained loudly with a slight growl, and everyone heard.

"Oh shut up, Roy!" Lindsay yelled back at him, and everyone looked in her in slight shock. "Like you're doing anything at this moment, plus you're always a lover of drama aren't ya?" She asked him that with some sarcasm in it.

Roy turned to face her and walked over to her, who wasn't cowering in fear. "What was that, Lindsay?"

"You heard me, Roy. I didn't see it myself, but I think we all know that you were loving that fight between Abby and Amethyst. You're the sick one here." She stood straight up, not backing down. She couldn't tell if her confidence was from the alcohol or adrenaline in her veins. "I really don't know what either of those girls see - or, _saw_ \- in you. All you are is a bully, a person who disregards other people's feelings!" There was an unintentional slight tremble in her voice, but she wanted to be there for Abigail, who she hadn't seen at all this night.

Roy sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whateva', I don't care about what some theatre geek has to say. I mean really, what, did ya join theatre so people would _have_ ta listen to ya? Because clearly, no one cares about what ya have to say otherwise." His brooklyn accent was more evident here, it usually was most noticeable when he was irritated.

"That's not true!" Lindsay shot back, a little hurt.

Roy chuckled a bit darkly. "I think it is. Nobody cares about what some nerd has to say, even if you're friends with the popular people. If it wasn't for Abigail I bet ya wouldn't even have any friends!" He laughed a bit louder now, and noticed Lindsay tremble a bit.

"That's not true." She protested once more, a bit quieter than before, trying to convince herself more than him at this point.

"Oh really?" Again, maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe the adrenaline, but Roy was getting more mad each second. "Lindsay, all you are is a side character in someone else's story, so why don't ya shut your annoying trap, do everyone a favor, and go home."

Lindsay looked around, hoping someone would protest and say something because she no longer had the will, but everyone was silent. Abigail and Mimi - two of her closest friends watched with cold eyes, and she couldn't believe it. She took a slow step back, right before turning around and running off, crying quietly.

Vivian was currently standing behind Mimi and Abigail, watching the scene go down. She wasn't the most outspoken one, but those two were! So why weren't they saying anything? She glanced at the two and Mimi was rolling her eyes. "Um, Mimi?" Mimi quickly glanced at Vivian, raising an eyebrow. "Shouldn't we say something? She's our friend."

Mimi sighed in annoyance and crossed her arms. "She's just a crybaby, who cares? She needs to stop taking everything so personally." Vivian was about to speak up, but Mimi kept talking. "I mean really, she picks a fight and then can't stand her own ground."

Mimi had a cold expression on her face, and so did Abigail, which confused Vivian. "B-but, she stood up for you, Abigail. Shouldn't you do the same?" Abigail then turned to look at Vivian, and looked exhausted.

"I didn't ask her to stand up for me. Besides, it's _Lindsay_ , I've known her for forever. She's never sad long. So, don't worry about her."

Vivian was baffled, "She ran off crying!"

Abigail exhaled sharply and narrowed her eyes at Vivian. "Then why don't you don't something?!"

Vivian debated it for a moment, before running off after Lindsay. That night she realized that her new friends weren't all that angelic like she thought. They loved drama, and didn't care who it affected. They were just as cold as Beldam was to her, and she didn't want to be around people like that.

Surprisingly, she found Lindsay sitting on the side of the road accompanied by… Norman? He usually seemed to be pretty peppy, but now he just seemed sad for Lindsay, who was loudly sobbing by now. "Lindsay?"

The two looked up at Vivian and Lindsay began crying even more. When Lindsay had run off, she passed Norman, who was leaving the party as well. He had heard her sobbing and asked her what was wrong, and now they were here. Yeah, he wasn't the biggest fan of her since she was friends with the 'stuck-up drama queens' as he called them, but he could never let someone be sad without doing something. Norman patted her on her back and Vivian sat down next to Lindsay. "I'm so sorry about what Roy said."

Lindsay shook her head and frantically tried to wipe her tears, which didn't stop them from coming. "He just… he knows how to point out people's weak points. I don't fit in with Abigail, and Mimi, a-and Luvbi." She took a deep breath after her stutter before continuing. "They're all so outspoken, and people like to hear what they have to say. Me? I don't fit in,"

Vivian frowned before gently placing a hand on her shoulder, waiting for her to continue. "I'm so scared sometimes that if I say the wrong thing, or dress a different way, that they'll just… leave me behind. They're already replacing me with Wendy, at least Mimi certainly is." Lindsay was letting her tears run freely now. "Roy's right, Mimi and Luvbi only put up with me because I'm Abigail's friend. It hurts, a-and to hear them not deny it, it makes me feel awful," Lindsay's voice cracked, and the two next to her almost started crying too.

Norman took a deep breath before speaking up. "Screw all of them. Really Lindsay, I'm not one to dance around the truth, so I'll be honest right now - they're not good friends, not for you at least." This caused her to cry more, so he quickly spoke up again. "I mean, all they care about is drama, they don't care who it hurts! They're all so full of themselves, it's sad. I know how you feel, about feeling awful. Sometimes I just… feel so low and down, and I don't want anyone else to feel like that, including you."

Vivian smiled at him before speaking up as well. "Yeah, Lindsay we don't have to hang around them. Forget them. We can hang out with some more laidback and fun people, like Lemmy! Or Squirps, or even O'Chunks."

Lindsay wiped her tears again and nodded her head. "That'd be nice. Th-thank you both, I just… I feel like I don't matter to anyone there." She took a deep breath before sighing again, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Awesome party, I'm so glad I came."

The three of them spent the next few hours bonding with each other over feeling sad, or worthless, or depressed. They had more in common than they thought, and by the end of the night, they all became closer.

Back at that 'awesome' party, Larry had returned by now with Bowser Junior, and the fire seemed to have died out, not leaving too much damage - everyone overreacted. Larry looked agitated, ignoring his very few burn marks on his scales. Everyone was gathering around him, who was clutching Bowser Junior like his life depended on it.

"Whoa, Larry! You're such a hero!" "You're insane, dude!" "Where was he?" "Awh, the poor thing!"

Larry brushed all of them to the side and ran over to Ludwig, who looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel from all the stress. "He was all alone, our dumb servants decided 'oh, he'll be fine if we leave for a second and check out the party'. Then, in the chaos of the fire, they all _forgot_ him!"

Just as he was complaining about it, none other than King Bowser Koopa himself shows up in his signature clown car. He landed right on the lawn, and everyone scattered. Well, except the Koopalings of course. They knew what was coming - their father had made it very clear before he left that he wanted there to be _no_ parties or disasters, and what else happened other than that.

Iggy pushed up his glasses - something he did when he was nervous - and glared at his sister as Bowser began to angrily walk towards them. "I blame this all on Wendy."

 **A/N: In case anyone was wondering, the songs that inspired me for different parts of this chapter were 'Halloween', 'Michael In The Bathroom', and 'The Smartphone Hour (Rich Set A Fire)' from the Be More Chill soundtrack. Obviously the events that occurred during these songs are** _ **not**_ **exactly what happened during this chapter, but it did inspire different parts of it and I'd highly recommend listening to those songs!**


	6. Chapter 5: Rumours Flying

**A/N: Hi everyone, first of all I am so so sorry for updating later than usual. As some of you may have guessed, the reason for that is because of school starting once more. The schoolwork is stressing me out along with having no friends in any of my classes. My nerves have been all over the place which isn't an excuse but hopefully you guys can understand that. Good news though, I might be getting homeschooled somewhat soon, I'm really hoping for that. If I will be homeschooled obviously I will still be swamped with schoolwork but at least my nerves will be much better and calmer and I'll be able to actually make a writing and updating schedule for this fic! I have** _ **not**_ **abandoned this fic whatsoever (even though this chapter was especially hard to write). Please just be patient with me!**

 **As for this chapter, I really hope you all like it. This is actually my third draft of this chapter. The first one was all just filler and the plot didn't actually move forward, so I scrapped it. The second one I got halfway through but it was too rushed and I also scrapped it. If you think this chapter is absolute rubbish I apologize, I want to get something out to you all but obviously I don't want it to be trash. I do hope you all like it! I tried to make it longer than usual without having it drag on, so hopefully the length and content makes up for the long pause between this chapter and last chapter, especially since I left on somewhat a cliffhanger. Okay, enough with my rambling, let's get on with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

It was the Monday after the extremely eventful party that the royal Koopa family had hosted, and there was a lot of tension in the air. Almost the entire school had attended, so they all either were thinking about their own drama at the party, or they were worried about the incident that had ended the party.

The incident being that someone had set the Koopa's house on fire. Nobody knew who did it of course, but there were quite a few theories, and all of them made a bit of sense depending on how much you knew about everyone's nights.

The first one was that Abigail had set it. People knew that she not only had started a fight, but she was acting strange afterwards, like not defending her 'best friend' against a bully. When you look at those facts, it did look believable, but Abigail tried telling people that she had spent the whole night after the fight in the bathroom crying, and Candy tried backing her up. Some believed her, but some were still skeptical.

The next theory was that Zip T. had been the one to start the fire, the theory was started by Abigail who was trying to take the blame off of herself. She told everyone that Zip had been acting strange all week and was feuding with Roy, so maybe he was the one who started the fire to try to get back at Roy. However, Zip's manager cleared this all up on various social media accounts. He said, and showed pictures, that Zip had been filming an upcoming movie throughout Friday afternoon all the way to Sunday evening, which did explain why he didn't show up for gym class but had been there in the morning.

The final theory was that it had just been some random drunk teenager; it _was_ a party after all, so maybe someone really had just stumbled into Iggy's highly flammable room and accidentally set a fire. It was possible, but Iggy had a bad feeling about that one - he swears he locked his door, so how would a drunk teen know how to pick a lock?

Those were the rumors spread around social media, but everyone's morning was about to twisted and turned upside down. First period hadn't even started yet, but everyone was already seated and ready to begin class. Abigail sighed, rolling her pencil back and forth on her desk. Her nerves were especially bad, she knew how much of a fool she made herself on Friday night, and she planned on apologizing to Amethyst that lunch period. Well, until she got a certain text.

' _From Dreamy mimi: "abigail check this out! a random number just sent this to me… apparently they saw who started that fire the koopas"._ ' An image was attached to her text, and Abigail was immediately relieved. She was glad to know that someone got actual evidence of who started the fire so she wouldn't be accused anymore. With a tap on her phone, the image opened up, and she gasped.

It was a picture of Amethyst sneaking into Iggy's room - unmistakable from her raven-black hair and - slightly dull? - pinkish purplish eyes. She looked a bit off but it was definitely Amethyst, Abigail frowned at the sight of her black eye in the photo. She had thought Amethyst left the party after the brawl the two girls had, but she supposed she returned for revenge.

Just a second later, everyone's phones had simultaneously dinged, signalling that they had received texts. Abigail had a feeling she knew what the text was of, and she was right. Everyone immediately started gossiping about it, sharing the photo around with others.

"Oh my grambi, did you get that text too?" "Yeah, the one of that slimeball Amethyst sneaking off to start the fire?!" "She was just salty she lost that fight." "But why get revenge on the Koopas?"

Meanwhile, Amethyst was strolling through the halls, a bit late for her class, a McDonald's soda in one of her hands. She was minding her own business, until she saw some other late students giving her rude looks. What was _their_ problem? Amethyst scoffed and rolled her eyes, opening the door to her homeroom class, and it went dead silent.

She awkwardly stood at the doorway for a second, then went to her seat right next to Gabby, who stared at her with wide eyes. Amethyst furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and nearly slammed her drink down on her desk. "Okay, Gabby, why is everyone looking at me like I murdered King Bowser?"

"Well, you potentially could've."

"Wha- wait, what?" Amethyst was beyond confused - what the hell did that mean?

"If he had been home… you probably could've." Gabby was deep in thought - her friend wouldn't be the type of person to do that. "I don't get it, why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Amethyst's voice shook a bit here. "Will you please just tell me what's going on?"

Gabby was silent, and then showed Amethyst the dreaded picture. It was clear what she was doing in this photo, her face was turned to the camera, and she was clearly holding a green lighter with red accents on it, making her way into Iggy's room. Amethyst was even more confused now. "That's not me."

"Amethyst it's literally you!" Gabby was confused as well. "That's gotta be you… right?"

"No! It's not." Amethyst narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Who took this?!" She grabbed the phone from her friend's hand and zoomed in. "That- that looks exactly like me… but it's not me. I left right after that fight I had with Abigail. I went home and ate my feelings - that wasn't me Gabby!"

Shakily, Gabby took her phone back and narrowed her eyes at the unknown sender of the photo. "I think I believe you." After a second of silence, Gabby coughed. "I mean, of course I believe you! I didn't think you'd set a freakin' fire. But, who the hell is that then?"

The haunting photo made them feel uneasy, and Gabby shut her phone off. They'd figure it out at lunch.

Period one seemed to drag on forever until the lunch bell finally rang. Amethyst felt like she was living a nightmare; everyone she turned, people were hating on her. And she knew she didn't do anything. "Pyromaniac," hissed Mimi as she strutted by. "Psycho," Zip T. called out. With a heavy sigh, she turned another corner and bumped right into Abigail, who cried out in shock.

"Oh- you." Abigail rolled her eyes and shoved past.

"Abigail-" Amethyst reached out, but Abigail retracted.

"Don't touch me! I was going to apologise to you for being such a jealous jerk on Friday, but now? I have no regrets," Her green eyes seemed to darken a bit before she turned away. "Freak."

Amethyst was left standing in the hall, and her stomach felt like she was on a rollercoaster that was going straight down and wouldn't stop. She wasn't sad though - no, she was angry. Someone had set her up, and she didn't know how it was possible. She stormed over to the lunchroom and sat at an empty table, fuming. Someone hated her enough to somehow light an entire castle on fire and make it seem like she did it. And she was going to find out who.

She was all alone, until she heard a chair move in front of her, and saw a flash of yellow. She looked up and it was Lindsay, wearing a yellow sweater and blue jeans, different than her usual outfit. She also wore her hair differently, in a messy ponytail rather than her usual bun. Amethyst didn't know this, but that was because this was Lindsay's favourite look, not her usual outer-space themed shirt and bun. That was _Abigail_ 's favourite look on her.

"Hi." Lindsay gave a shy smile. "Um, mind if I sit here? I don't exactly have anywhere else to sit." The two girls glanced over at Lindsay's old table and grimaced - seated there was Abigail, Mimi, Wendy, and Luvbi.

"Aren't you gonna sit with them?" Amethyst had no idea what had happened afterwards at the party, so she was a bit confused and skeptical.

"No," Lindsay looked a bit sad and lowered her eyes. "Roy was a jerk and said they didn't really care about me, and they didn't protest. So I'm not really bothering with them."

Amethyst scoffed. "Of course they would. They're just jerks, okay? Including Roy. Also, uh, for the record - I did _not_ set his house on fire to get back at him."

Lindsay's eyes lit up, and she nodded hastily. "Oh no, I knew that. I figured, it's super easy to frame someone for something when you know what others are capable of." She shrugged, but Amethyst was once again confused. She noted that she'd been confused a lot today. Lindsay noticed, and elaborated. "There's two shapeshifters at this school, and both of them don't exactly like you. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them took your form to frame you for the fire."

"Wait, what?" Amethyst leaned forward, not noticing Gabby and Vivian also joining the girls at the table. "You're saying that some shapeshifter turned into me, got their picture taken, and set a fire all to frame me for it?"

"What?!" Gabby exclaimed, a little confused. "Um, hi, yeah what's going on?"

Lindsay frowned a bit. "I'll explain. Take a seat and gather around children, I'll tell a little story." A smile broke out on her face, and Vivian rolled her eyes at her goofy friend. "The two shapeshifters, at least that I know of, are Doopliss and Mimi." The other three nodded their heads, showing that they're following along.

"Well, Mimi is best friends with Abigail. She likes to think she's 'second-in-command' in ranking the group, which is why she's so bossy but always goes along with whatever Abigail does. She can be… well, really nasty. I wouldn't put it past her to change herself to look like you and then set a fire in the Koopa's house so everyone would hate you instead of feel bad for you after the fight."

Her theory did make sense, but it still seemed like a bit of a reach. Gabby shook her head, "I don't know… would Mimi really set a fire just to make people hate Amethyst?"

"Well, yeah." Lindsay leaned back in her seat. "Mimi wants everyone to love her and her friend group, and they were pissed off at Abigail and Roy for practically bullying Amethyst. So Mimi made sure that instead of having the school go against them, she made them go against Amethyst."

Amethyst was practically red in the face now - she had a feeling Lindsay was right. Her deep pink eyes found their way to a certain table once again, and she quickly stood up, nearly knocking her chair over before storming over there.

"Uh - oh no," Vivian was a bit nervous, she hated conflicts and had a feeling Amethyst was about to start one. "Shouldn't we stop her?" As she said this, Norman came up to the group with a cheery smile, picking up Amethyst's discarded chair and sat down on it.

"'Sup guys," He greeted them, and followed their gaze towards Amethyst. "Well, what's going on over here?"

"Amethyst's gonna go punch Mimi out." Gabby chuckled a bit, and Norman joined her before leaning back in the chair.

"This should be fun."

Amethyst was seeing red at this point, her eyes narrowed on Mimi. She stormed right over to the table and slammed her fists down on it. The girls all jumped, and Wendy scoffed.

"If it isn't the pyromaniac that set my house on fire! Good to see you." Sarcasm was laced in her voice, and Amethyst growled a bit.

"You should be saying that to someone a bit closer than you think." She made eye contact with Mimi, who looked just a bit nervous. "Isn't that right, Mimi?"

The other three girls now looked at Mimi too, and Wendy spoke up. "Mimi, what the hell is she talking about?"

Mimi scoffed quietly, "If you're accusing me of setting Wendy's house on fire, you're wrong, okay? I don't even know where you got that idea! It's _you_ in the picture, Amethyst."

"Oh, really? Because I seem to recall leaving the party after _someone_ ," Her eyes glared at Abigail. "Fought me. She gave me a black eye, but she also cut my cheek." The girls didn't know why Amethyst was talking about this. "Look at the picture - my cheek's perfectly fine in it."

The girls all whipped out their phones and looked, and of course, Amethyst's cheek was in fact fine. There wasn't even a dried up scratch. Mimi looked a bit more nervous now, and Amethyst's anger only grew. "You mimicked me, didn't you Mimi? You're a shapeshifter, so you imitated me for whatever messed up reason and lit your friend's house on fire, but you seemed to forget one minor detail about me."

Wendy's eyes narrowed at Mimi, hoping she'd protest, say she was crazy for even suggesting something like that, but she didn't give a huge protest. "It wasn't me." She seemed a bit smug saying this, as if she was truly sure it wasn't her. But if not her…?

"Okay, look!" Abigail waved her hands around in the air. "Amethyst, we'll talk to Mimi about this. Can you give us some space?"

By now everyone in the cafeteria was watching the drama unfold, and Amethyst only took notice of this now. She heaved out a sigh and crossed her arms, standing up straight. "Fine. But don't think I'm going to forget about this. Not until whoever did it apologises." The table group waved her off, and she returned to her table.

"That sure went well." Norman giggled a bit and stole one of Amethyst's fries, who for once didn't mind that someone was taking her food.

"Well," She pondered over what to say. "That didn't go exactly how I wanted it, but at least they know it wasn't me in the photo." She was finally calm and ready to have a relaxing lunch with some new acquaintances and her best friend, until Gabby stood up along with her bag.

"I'm off," She adjusted her glasses and all eyes were on her. "Larry, Morton and I are gonna chill for a bit outside, we kinda bonded at the party I think. Plus, Larry's bringing one of his new friends, Wolfe I think her name is."

The table nodded, and resumed their lunch before the bell would ring. Gabby left the cafeteria, only to be immediately pulled into a janitor's closet. "Ah!"

It was pitch black, and she couldn't see even a silhouette in front of her, but she was angry at whoever it was. No one had the right to roughly grab her and pull her into a dark, enclosed area! She felt a little scared at the same time - what if this was the psycho who started the fire? "Who are you?!"

A female sighed and turned on a dim light - Gabby knew who she was, it was Electra, she was in her classes. "Electra? What's your deal?"

"You're hanging out with Larry? _And_ Wolfe?" Electra looked a bit angry at Gabby, who took notice of that right away.

"Uh, yeah, and Morton. How is this even any of your business?" She was annoyed now - who did Electra think she is?

"It's all of my business!" Electra burst out, her eyes going wide. "I was just wondering, okay?"

"Oh really?" Gabby crossed her arms and sized Electra up. "Okay, I'm gonna be blunt here. Electra, all you do is stalk Larry and you constantly want to find out what he's doing. Don't you find that a bit… oh, I dunno, creepy?"

The magikoopa was a bit taken aback. Creepy? Electra didn't think she was creepy, and she really didn't think she was that obvious when stalking Larry. "I'm not creepy."

"Do you like him or something? Is that why you always watch his every move?"

"No!" Electra protested, but she knew that Gabby knew the truth. That made her think - did everyone know the truth, that she really liked Larry? Did Larry himself know? "Okay. Maybe I do. So what?"

Gabby groaned loudly, putting a hand on her forehead. "Electra, that is _not_ how you get a guy to like you. You don't stalk him!"

"Well what do I do then? Gabby, you have to help me! I know Wolfe likes him too, and I don't want to lose him to her."

That was more of a shock to Gabby, since Wolfe wasn't as obvious with it, but she shook her head. "Alright, okay! Just… I dunno, talk to him about literally anything but _do not_ make pointless small talk, actually have things to say. Like, talk about homework or upcoming events, like homecoming."

"That's it! I'll ask him to homecoming!" Electra clapped her hands together and grinned a bit too much. "Thanks Gabby!" She ran out of the janitor's closet and slammed the door behind her with a soft click.

"Wait- wait, Electra!" She hastily grabbed the doorknob, but as she suspected, it locked behind her from the outside. She was locked in a closet. "Oh great. Just what I needed in my life."

She was about to yell for help, until she heard two voices walking down the hall - one of which was Mimi's voice. "Look, the point is, we almost got caught! What are we gonna do now, huh?!" She was nearly yelling, but didn't want to attract attention. A male voice spoke up.

"I _told_ you Mimi, you should've had me steal Zip's identity because that literally would've been so much easier and more expected, but 'oh no, Doopy, I wanna make that annoying little girl pay!' Yeah, great plan." Doopliss sarcastically imitated her voice, and Gabby rolled her eyes. So Doopliss was the other one behind it, what a surprise. He was practically in love with Mimi, so of course he'd do anything for her. She made a mental note to tell Amethyst of it afterwards.

"It was, but you ruined it! You somehow forgot to have a scratched cheek - great job, genius!" Mimi's voice was shrill and Gabby cringed at the sound of it. "Now, all my friends don't trust me. After the stupid crybaby left our little clique I was sure to be Abigail's second-hand girl, but no! Now, it's all ruined. I can't tell if they hate me or not." Her voice was extremely bitter; Mimi was a very envious person. Gabby couldn't tell if she truly cared about her friends or just wanted to use them for popularity.

"Look," Doopliss' voice was soft towards the green pigtailed girl. "It'll be fine. We'll make sure that your place in your kick-"

"Clique."

"Whatever- is secured. Just chill, Mimikins. Relax." And with that, the two walked away. Gabby almost vomited at the sound of 'mimikins' - god, they were lovey-dovey one minute and hating each other the next. With them gone, she started to bang on the closet door for help, she didn't want to miss her next class.

Meanwhile, Cheryl was leaving the cafeteria a bit sadly. Homecoming was this upcoming Friday, and she really wanted to ask Iggy, god did she ever want to ask Iggy. But she couldn't find the courage in herself to do so. She knew her close friend Candy liked him as well, and she knew Candy would be heartbroken if her crush was going with her best friend.

She turned around and glanced back at her usual table, Francis was gazing lovingly at Candy, and Candy and Iggy were in the middle of discussing some kind of science-related topic. They already looked like a couple, and Cheryl was a bit saddened. She really cared for the both of them and wanted the best for them, but she also had to think of what the best would be for herself.

A sudden yell broke her out of her thoughts - seemingly coming from the janitor's closet. She walked a bit closer, and quietly asked, "Hello?"

"Oh!" Gabby was surprised, someone finally heard her. "Hello! Hi! I'm stuck in here, please unlock the door!" She waited for a second, and the door flung open. "Thanks, Cheryl!" Gabby grinned at her, who was a little confused.

"Um, no problem. How'd you even get in there?"

"Oh," Gabby shrugged, it wasn't like she had been kidnapped and then forcibly locked in a closet. She assumed Electra accidentally locked her in. "It was just an accident, it's no big. But thanks again! What time is it?"

Cheryl quickly checked her dark green watch, and read the time aloud, "11:45. Class starts in 15 minutes."

"Damn!" Gabby cursed. "Sorry, I just- I was supposed to meet up with some people. Shoot." She walked away quickly, grumbling under her breath. Cheryl felt a bit bad for her, but decided not to give it much more thought. She had her own issues to deal with - like homecoming. She couldn't get it off of her mind - betray her one close friend and ask the guy she liked to it, or sit back and watch the guy of her dreams go with her close friend? She didn't have the slightest clue what to do.

Outside, near the bleachers in front of the football field, Larry, Wolfe, and Morton were still waiting for Gabby. "Jeez, where is she?" Larry complained, fanning himself with his hand from the heat.

"I dunno," Wolfe pulled out her phone and checked the time. "Class is gonna start soon, maybe she's just not coming."

"She probably got held up by someone," Morton pondered. "Maybe Amethyst?"

Larry made a face of annoyance - he believed Amethyst was the one who lit their castle on fire and could've nearly killed their baby brother, especially thanks to their idiotic employees who left Bowser Junior alone and partied instead. Thankfully Bowser did end up firing those employees, but still, Larry was bitter about it. He really did care about his youngest brother.

Wolfe shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe. We should get going though, class will start soon. I heard today we're learning what play we'll be practicing and performing for our final exam."

"Ooh, I'm excited! I hope it's a classic, maybe not Shakespeare though… his work is kinda hard to understand in my opinion." Morton muttered. He then noticed a figure running towards them in the distance. "Who the heck is that?"

The other two looked at who was running towards them, and surprise, surprise, it was Electra. She looked almost ecstatic and very confident. She kept running until she stopped right in front of them, and let out a huge grin. "Larry!"

Larry raised an eyebrow, a little confused. "Uh, hey Electra, what's up?"

"Will you go to homecoming with me?" She blurted out, and Wolfe was stunned. She looked at Larry desperately - she had been hoping to ask him that same question after school, and she was praying that he'd say no right now.

"Um," Larry was stunned as well. He had a feeling Electra liked him, but he didn't think she'd be so bold with this. Maybe she meant it in a friendly way? And why was Wolfe fuming? She looked as if she was about to explode, and if looks could kill, Electra would be dead. "Sure."

Wolfe tried not to audibly gasp, but it was hard. And it did hurt her a bit. Did Larry think of Electra as more than a friend?

Well, no. Larry didn't think of anyone that way, at least not yet. It _was_ only the second week of school after all, and he was the kind of guy to take things slowly. But he figured, what could possibly go wrong by going with Electra to homecoming?

Electra grinned widely, but tried to remain cool. "Great! Cool, cool. Um, so, I'll see you later to discuss this further! Bye!" She ran off as quickly as she came, and the air was filled with tension.

"So, that happened." Morton was trying not to laugh, he was great at reading people's emotions. He knew that Larry was in the middle of a love triangle, though oblivious to it right now. Homecoming was sure to be messy. He was glad he didn't have to worry about his love life. Okay, that was a lie. He did like a certain nimbi just a tad bit, or as he would put it, a 'teeny-tiny tinsy winsy microscopic crush'. But that would be discussed at another time.

The warning bell rang to signal ten minutes until class, and Wolfe groaned loudly. "See you guys in class." She quickly stormed off, and Larry was a bit confused.

"Morton? What's happening?"

"Oh dude, you have no clue."

Class soon began, and the drama class was buzzing with excitement. By now everyone knew that today would be the reveal date of the play they'd perform, and everyone had high expectations. Madame Flurrie floated into the room and arrived on a small stage she had set up in the classroom for solo performances or whenever she had an announcement. "Ahem! Hello darlings!"

The class immediately settled down, though a bit nervously. Which play had Madame Flurrie chose? "Now! I know, I know, all of you are excited to hear about the play I've chosen for you all to perform, and I'll let you know without further delay. The one I've chosen is..."

She waited, making a dramatic pause, and noticed how each of the students reacted. Some, such as Ludwig and Gabby, were a bit annoyed at her unnecessary pause. Others, like Wolfe, Lindsay, and Norman were on the edge of their seats. Finally she decided to reveal it.

"Romeo and Juliet!"

The entire class let out a huge groan. One of the most unique teachers chose such an overrated play to perform? Yes, it was a classic, but come on. Everyone was a bit disappointed.

"Oh come on!" Madame Flurrie was also a bit disappointed, but in their reaction. "It's such a classic, and full of romance, and tragedy-!"

"And it's boring as hell." Larry chimed in, and Wolfe shushed him for being rude.

"Hmph!" Madame Flurrie was annoyed now - how dare these students hate on her choice? She'd have to show them how good it really was. "It all depends on the actors and actresses. I'll show you how amazing it can really be, with a bit of help."

Just a few minutes later, a certain cosmetology teacher entered, and everyone got a bit more nervous. Madame Flurrie was happy though, "Ms. Birdo!"

Ms. Birdo batted her lashes and struck a pose. "Hello, all." The students all cringed. Ms. Birdo was… something else.

"Don't tell me…" Electra mumbled to Norman, "That _she_ will be reading a scene as Juliet." Causing Norman to chuckle at the thought. That couldn't possibly be what she was doing!

Oh, but it was.

The class sat through half an hour of Ms. Birdo dramatically reading many scenes as Juliet, and it was awful. Some students fell asleep, and others were envying those students. Finally, she finished, and Madame Flurrie was the only one clapping for her.

"Now!" She took the stage once again. "Do you all see how interesting this play can truly be?" She was met with silence. "Ugh! Seriously, do none of you appreciate classic literature?"

"How about we put a twist on it?" Wolfe piped up, and everyone turned to her. "Okay, so we do the same play and everything, but if we just do the play as it is, let's be real. No one will come to the performance." Madame Flurrie immediately frowned, but Wolfe continued. "But! If we add a twist, say… uh, zombies come into the mix, everyone would be so much more interested!"

"Nice idea!" Larry nodded towards her, and Wolfe smiled at him, giving Electra a side glance.

"Well…" Madame Flurrie pondered over the idea. If it would attract more people… "Okay. Let's do it!"

The class erupted in happiness, finally excited to be performing Romeo and Juliet. They spent the rest of the day brainstorming who would be which role, but ultimately it was up to Madame Flurrie to make the decision; she told them she'd let them know tomorrow at the beginning of class.

As for the gym class, they weren't as happy during the period. There was quite a bit of tension, and Coach Daisy hated it. Everyone was snapping at each other, and she didn't know how to teach them to be more polite.

Most of the girls - Wendy, especially - kept making passive-aggressive remarks towards Mimi, who had Doopliss to stick up for her. Zip was trying to talk things out with Abigail, potentially get back together with her, but she was ignoring him. Roy was trying to defend Abigail, but she was ignoring him as well. Cheryl was trying to distance herself a bit from Candy and Iggy, which confused them a bit.

Coach Daisy had enough of it - how was she supposed to teach a class that wouldn't stop bickering or causing drama long enough for her to even give out instructions? She knew who she had to call to teach them some discipline and how to act like an adult.

Not even twenty minutes later, a pink limousine rolled up just outside of the school, and out stepped none other than the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom - the Mushroom Kingdom. She quickly made her way to the gymnasium, and as soon as she walked through the large double doors, the room went silent.

"Peach!" Daisy called out, running for her best friend and wrapping her up in a hug.

"Daisy!" Peach separated herself from Daisy for a second, "I came as soon as I could. Traffic was a bit harsh, but I made it!" She grinned widely, showing off her perfect smile. Her sparkling blue eyes then darted towards the students, who were stunned. "Now, what's this I hear about some teens not knowing how to behave like adults?"

In just two minutes, she got everyone sitting on the bleachers, all facing her. She looked extremely out of place in the gym - she was in a baby pink blazer accompanied by a matching pencil skirt. It was her principal attire - she had left her secretary in charge of running the school just for a few hours so she could come teach these students a lesson.

"So, let's start off slowly. Who here has an issue with someone in here?"

Immediately everyone started talking, causing Peach to wildly wave her hands around. "Ah! I didn't say I wanted to _know_ your issue. I just wanted to see a show of hands - who here has an issue with someone else in here?"

Majority of the class raised their hands, and Peach sighed.

"Okay. Now, who here can tell me how to properly deal with having a problem with someone?" Roy raised his hand, and Peach sighed once again. "Yes, Roy?"

"Ya fight 'em!"

"No, Roy." She delicately placed a hand to her forehead in annoyance. "That's not how you deal with having a problem with someone. Anyone else have a different answer?" Wendy raised her hand. "...Preferably not another Koopa?" Wendy lowered her hand.

Nobody else raised their hand, and Peach gave a disapproving look to all of them. "Really? Good gracious, this'll take a while." She looked at Daisy, who gave her a pitying look.

Her speech took up the whole class. She told them that adults don't fight each other when they have a problem, or ignore them, or turn everyone else against them. She said that they should talk about their problem with each other civilly, and ignored the question 'but what about Mario and Bowser?'.

The final bell rang, signalling the end of class, and Peach dismissed them. She looked exhausted and turned to Daisy. "I have no idea how you deal with these kids every day. They're so… cruel to each other. They all seem like stereotypical mean girls!"

"Peach, you were totally the mean girl when we were in high school."

"Psh, no I wasn't!"

"...Mhm."

All the students rushed out of the school, mentally exhausted. Cheryl was making her way home until she heard her name being called. She quickly turned around, and there was Candy running, trying not to trip over her cat tail, her blonde hair flying everywhere. "Hey! Are you okay? You seemed down today. Something happen at the party?"

Cheryl shook her head, she didn't know what to say to her. "No,"

Candy sighed. She knew Cheryl was hiding something from her. "Listen… I know we haven't been friends for too long, but you know you can tell me anything. I'm here for you. Did I do something wrong?"

"Are you going with Iggy to homecoming?" Cheryl blurted out, then immediately covered her mouth. "I- I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that to sound mean or blunt-"

"No, it's okay." Truthfully, the blonde was a bit taken aback, but she brushed it off. "Um, no, we're not going together. Did," She knew she would regret her next words. "Did you want to go with him?"

She felt a bit sad when Cheryl nodded her head, but didn't want to be rude to her friend. It was tough trying to keep a friendship when you both like the same guy. Yes, she really did want to go with Iggy, but she knew Cheryl would be crushed if she went with him. "Well, ask him."

Cheryl's green eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

With a nod, Candy smiled. "Yeah. Maybe I'll go with Francis or something? It's alright. You better have fun though!" She giggled a bit, trying not to be too sad about this, but it was hard. Cheryl was ecstatic though. She hugged Candy tightly, her eyes watering a bit.

"Thanks, Candy. You're a good friend." She grinned happily, and Candy tried to return it. ' _Yeah, and at this rate, a good friend is all I'll ever be to Iggy._ '

"It's no problem. See you tomorrow!" She smiled and turned around, waving to her friend. Well, she was disappointed, but she tried to shrug it off. Things would play out, and however it did, she was determined not to ruin her friendship with anyone - not with Iggy, not with Cheryl.

The week seemed to already be going by slowly and dramatically, but one thing was for certain, things would be even more dramatic at homecoming. For better, or for worse? Will Gabby make the decision to tell everyone that Doopliss was the one who started the fire, and will anyone believe her? How will the two current love triangles play out, will someone get hurt in the process? And finally, who else will go together to homecoming - will new relationships blossom, or will past ones return? It's hard to tell - anything could happen in the kingdom of Darklands.

 **A/N: It's after 1 am and I'm finishing this up now - so I hope you guys like it, leave a review if you'd like but no hate please - I'm fine with constructive criticism and suggestions for later chapters, here are my ideas for the next few chapters: homecoming, picture day, halloween themed chapter. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 6: Time for Homecoming

**A/N: Welcome back to another chapter! I'm very excited about where this story is going - there's many subplots so I apologize if this story is confusing in any way but that's just how high school is, you know? Hectic, and a bit confusing. Also, I hope everyone who submitted a character is liking how I'm writing your character, if not, let me know how it should be! But please remember, this** _ **is**_ **my story, and I know I do not own any of your characters in any way, shape, or form, but I do get to write about the events that occur to each of them. Speaking of which, the girl who submitted Amethyst (my best friend in real life), loves the drama this story has but is very upset (not seriously upset) about all the crap happening to Amethyst. I swear, Amethyst will get a happy ending - everyone will (maybe)! I feel bad because poor Amethyst is dealing with so much right now and she deserves none of it, but I promise, things will improve.**

 **Just a quick note, this chapter focuses a lot on the two current love triangles but let me just say:** _ **none of this is final**_ **! Everyone is still figuring out their feelings and what to do with them, if anything at all. None of the developing relationships are stable, so if you're like 'aw dang it, doesn't look like my characters gonna get with their crush', just wait! This fic is far from over, so anything could happen, and nothing is set in stone this early in the story. Anyways, let's begin, shall we?**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

The day had come, the day everyone had been waiting for all week: homecoming. School had already ended for the day, which felt like it was dragging on forever. The entire week felt like it went by so slowly, but it was Friday at five in the afternoon, and everyone could finally party once again at the end of the week and unwind.

Let's recap what occurred throughout the week, shall we?

Monday, rumours were flying everywhere - who started the Koopa's fire at the party they held last Friday night? Gabby learned that it was Doopliss and Mimi who were behind it, and she told Amethyst, but decided not to tell anyone else. After all, they had no evidence. For the time being, everyone still thought Amethyst started that horrid fire. Madame Flurrie revealed which play her drama class would be performing for their exam - Romeo and Juliet, but with… zombies? It sounded quite interesting, and people were already excited for it. Electra had asked Larry to homecoming, who accepted her request and was a bit excited for it.

Tuesday came around and this was the day that many people asked others to homecoming. Cheryl, with Candy's 'approval', asked Iggy to homecoming, who was thrilled to go with her to Candy's disappointment. Morton also casually asked Luvbi to homecoming, who brushed it off as if it was nothing, but secretly was very excited to go to a dance with someone. Madame Flurrie also revealed the roles of who would play who in the play, and the choices were quite strange:

Larry was Romeo, Luvbi was Juliet, Morton was Benvolio, Norman was Mercutio, Dimentio was Friar Lawrence, Ludwig was Montague, Electra was Lady Montague, Lemmy was Capulet, Wolfe was Lady Capulet, Lindsay was The Nurse, O'Chunks was Tybalt, Vivian was Paris, Squirps was Prince Escalus, Amethyst was Sampson, and finally, Gabby was Gregory.

Yes, some got smaller roles than others, but that was 'just how plays worked' claimed Madame Flurrie, and stated that everyone still had to work hard, even if they were a girl who got a male role because there simply weren't enough female roles. Everyone was excited though, many characters got to die plus zombies would be incorporated. Because of this, Madame Flurrie changed the plot just a tad bit.

You see, in the play - spoiler alert - one of the many characters that die is Juliet. Friar Laurence gives her a potion to make her seem as if she died so she could quietly escape and be with Romeo, but Romeo thinks she's actually dead so he then kills himself to be with her. Of course, she's not really dead, so when she wakes up to Romeo's dead body, she also kills herself.

At first Madame Flurrie had no idea how to incorporate zombies into the play, but then she had an idea - Juliet would actually die due to the potion given to her by Friar Laurence, but the potion goes wrong and turns her into a zombie, making her return just after Romeo kills himself like in the original play but for different reasons. Everyone loved it and thought it was a cool concept - yes there weren't many zombies, nothing like an apocalypse, but it still made the play more chilling.

However, one person that was not happy whatsoever with these changes and these roles was the girl playing Juliet herself - Luvbi. She felt disgusted having to pretend she was Larry's one true love, plus, the zombies completely ruined Shakespeare's fine work of art! This entire play was just going to be so disrespectful and horrendous, she couldn't wait to get it over with, especially due to Wolfe and Electra being a bit jealous of her; they weren't subtle.

When the roles were announced, both of the girls were stunned. Luvbi, as _Juliet_? And Larry as Romeo?! Outrageous! While both girls didn't want the other to be Juliet, they knew that each of the girls would at least appreciate the role. But Luvbi? When roles were announced, they glanced over at Luvbi, and she was nearly crying but certainly _not_ from happiness. She was crying because Madame Flurrie wanted her to kiss Larry - since they were playing lovers - but Luvbi was absolutely disgusted at the thought.

That pretty much wrapped up Tuesday, now onto Wednesday. Wendy and Mimi had a bit of a quarrel - Mimi made a comment about Amethyst starting the fire and Wendy had enough of her lying. Wendy was almost a hundred percent certain that Mimi was the one who caused the fire, and made sure she knew it. Of course Mimi denied it, but Wendy had a feeling deep down that on Monday, Amethyst was right - Mimi was the one behind it.

By Thursday, everyone was at each other's throats. One group was divided - the friend group that consisted of Wendy, Mimi, Abigail, Luvbi and Lindsay. Abigail confronted Lindsay about her avoiding them throughout the whole week and Lindsay completely snapped at her, saying 'well for once it seems like you guys actually care about me'. They had a huge fight in the middle of english class and both got sent to the office for the rest of the period. Meanwhile, Mimi and Wendy were no longer on speaking terms. They both felt betrayed by the other one and couldn't even be in the same room, so gym class was a living hell for them and all the other students.

The love triangles focusing on Iggy and Larry were also getting more tense as homecoming drew closer. Let's go more into detail about that.

Candy was growing more sad as the week drew on. Thursday she finally asked Francis to go with her to homecoming - strictly as friends - and of course he was super excited. Iggy was happy for him, and was happy to be going with Cheryl, but he couldn't help feeling a bit saddened. He couldn't figure out why though. Candy knew why she was sad though, she'd obviously rather go with Iggy but didn't want to hurt Cheryl.

As for Wolfe and Electra, they were both stressed. Wolfe wanted to hang out at homecoming with Larry, but she knew that he was going with Electra and didn't want to overstep her boundaries. Electra was very proud of herself, she asked her crush to homecoming before Wolfe had the chance to do it. But the question is, would Wolfe still try to pursue Larry at the dance? Only time will tell.

And finally, the present day. Friday. The past school day was surprisingly calm but boring - mainly because everyone just wanted the week to end. The past week was uncontrollably hectic, and many were exhausted. Some were still excited for homecoming, but many just wanted to get this over with.

Right now, Abigail and Wendy were meeting up at the Koopa's castle to get ready for homecoming. They were going to wear matching dresses - Abigail a sleek black dress and Wendy a sleek baby pink dress. Their motto was homecoming was 'screw boys', and they were ready to stick to it. Abigail was done with boys (right now), and Wendy had nobody she was really interested in. Currently, Wendy was styling Abigail's hair and gossiping to her about none other than Mimi.

"I just don't get it!" She let out a heavy sigh and her bow shook lightly atop her head. "Why would she want to light my freakin' house on fire? I really don't get it,"

"Maybe it wasn't her?" Abigail questioned, but she also had a bad feeling that Mimi was behind it. "I dunno, it just… she seems so sure of herself, when she says that it's not her."

"Yeah, well, maybe she's a good liar."

"Pft, she's quite the opposite." The redhead thought back on her previous years in high school. "Mimi's always been dreadfully honest, so I don't know why she'd lie about this. I don't know what to believe… whoever tried to burn this place down is a psycho, that's for sure."

"Mhm…" Wendy nodded in agreement, and felt the need to change the subject. "How're things going with Lindsay?"

Abigail groaned loudly and put her hand to her forehead. "Don't remind me, she's still avoiding us like the plague. She's really hurt and _I_ didn't even do anything. But I guess that's the problem." She sighed dramatically, and started thinking about all her problems - most of which she did cause on her own. Whatever she and Zip had going was done because she blamed the fire on him to get the blame off of herself, and she was avoiding Roy because she realized he played Amethyst just to get back at her… Amethyst. Oh boy. She felt horrid thinking about her - first of all, she hated her just for being a pawn in Roy's scheme, which she wasn't even aware of. Then she fought her for no good reason really, other than the fact that she was spilling the truth and Abigail couldn't handle it. Finally, she called her a freak and was extremely rude on Monday when the picture of her started going around.

Her eyes lowered to the ground - it was barely two weeks into school and she felt overwhelmed, she had already caused so many issues. Her nearly-ex boyfriend and her were on bad terms because of rumours and her playing him, her other nearly-ex boyfriend had a love-hate relationship with her, she made an enemy with some random girl she really didn't have an issue with, and her best friend after so many years felt betrayed and hated her.

"Abigail? You okay?" Wendy snapped her out of her rather depressing thoughts, and she hastily nodded.

"Yeah…" She thought over what she would say next. "Let's just get ready and go to this stupid dance."

And so they did - so did everyone, really. By seven o'clock everyone was allowed to enter the school's gymnasium, where homecoming was being held. The homecoming committee had went all out for their fairy-tale theme, suggested by Luvbi. The nimbi and Lindsay were the heads of the committee - well, until this Tuesday. Lindsay resigned, so Luvbi was left all alone to run the preparations. It was a bit overwhelming, but she managed.

By half after seven, everyone had arrived and had situated themselves wherever they pleased. Some couples were dancing together, such as Electra and Larry, Cheryl and Iggy, Mimi and Doopliss, and hell, even Vivian and Ludwig were dancing together, definitely not Lindsay's idea at all.

Okay, it was completely Lindsay's idea, and Lemmy had helped a bit. They liked to call themselves the 'matchmakers' - see, Lindsay thought that they were both a bit socially awkward and could use some help with talking to the opposite gender, so she figured why not set them up together? Lemmy helped of course, he had a thing for getting people together.

In the middle of the dance floor was Iggy, dancing with Cheryl, who he noted looked incredibly gorgeous that day, even more than usual, with her sparkling green eyes, or her shimmering dark purple dress, and even her silky black hair - wait. Iggy blinked in confusion, since when had he paid so much attention to Cheryl? Not that it was a bad thing, not at all. He was just a bit shocked. He looked back down at her, who shyly smiled at him, and he felt his heart jump.

Oh.

Iggy liked her. It took him a minute, well, maybe two weeks, but it just hit the poor nerd like a train going three hundred miles per hour. He grinned back at her, happy to finally get his feelings straight - he liked her! But, why did he still feel a bit sad?

He glanced across the room and noticed Candy standing near the punch bowl looking sad, and his heart sank. In her strawberry-pink dress she tried to look interested in whatever Francis was talking about, but Iggy could tell that the poor girl was bored out of her mind. He loved being there with Cheryl, but what about Candy?

Iggy blinked again in confusion, and a storm of questions brewed in his mind. Oh no - oh grambi. Did Iggy also like Candy? No, he couldn't like two girls at the same time, he didn't want to, that just complicates things. But he couldn't help it. Again, he felt overwhelmed with his new discoveries. He liked two girls. He couldn't help feeling selfish.

"Iggy?" Cheryl noticed the worry on his face, and she felt that maybe she did something wrong. Did she... smile at him the wrong way, or something? The girl had no clue. "Um, are you okay?"

Iggy shook his head, and stepped away. "I can't." He ran off, leaving the noirette alone on the dance floor, her heart crushed. She felt like it was all her fault, and wanted to go home all of a sudden. From across the room Candy was secretly watching them, and noticed. Quickly, she excused herself from the chameleon and rushed over to Cheryl.

As soon as she reached her, Cheryl sniffed a bit sadly, trying to hold in tears. "Oh no, no, no! What happened?" The blonde tucked some of Cheryl's hair behind her ear, and all the latter could do was shake her head.

"I don't even know."

Iggy was currently pacing the hallway, and couldn't get either of the girls out of his mind. He liked both of them - what the hell was he to do now? He couldn't date both of them, no, he wouldn't be comfortable with that. He kept pacing, and his two brothers turned a corner - Larry and Morton.

"Duuude!" Larry greeted him, and Morton waved, but Iggy didn't wave back. "Uh, Ig? You good?"

"No!" The spectacle wearing koopa shook his head and looked at them with wide eyes. "I like two girls, and I don't know what to do for once in my life!" Morton stifled a giggle and looked curiously at Larry, who wanted to ask a question.

"Do they like you too?" He tilted his head, and Iggy shrugged. "Well if they do, you're screwed. Love triangles are the _worst_." Morton chuckled a bit, and Larry eyed him. "What was that for?"

"Oh, come on. You would know all about love triangles."

"Wait, what?" Larry tilted his head again like a confused puppy. "Wait wait wait. What?"

Morton rolled his eyes and leaned against a wall. "I don't wanna make things awkward but you do know that both Wolfe and Electra like you?"

Larry eyes went wide, "Oh." He looked as if he was putting pieces together - Electra was a bit more obvious, but he didn't think Wolfe would ever like him. Then again, that did explain her being upset after he said yes to going to homecoming with Electra who, speaking of which, went off to get them some punch. It had been ten minutes though, so he had no idea what she was doing.

"Well." Larry cleared his throat a bit. "This is a… predicament."

"Do you like both of them too, Larry?" Iggy asked him with a bit of hope in his voice, but Larry shrugged.

"I mean… it's hard to say. I barely know both of them after all, but… the potential's there I guess? I can't tell dude. Maybe?" He sighed and turned around, heading towards the gym. He figured he should go find Electra and get his mind off of this mess, and who else does he bump into than Wolfe?

"Ow!" She ran right into him as she turned a corner, and slightly glared at him. "Gee, you really never watch where you're going, do you?" She joked a bit, referring to the first day of school where they found themselves in a similar situation. She was thankful he wasn't holding paint again though, she didn't want to ruin her nice white dress.

He laughed a bit and shrugged. "Guess not."

There was a bit of awkward silence for a bit before Wolfe cleared her throat. "So, uh, where's Electra?" She really did just ask out of curiousity, but Larry was a bit unsure after being told they both like him.

"Oh, uh, she said she was getting us some punch, but she's been gone for a few minutes so I was just gonna go look for her." Wolfe nodded, and Larry felt the need to ask. "Did you come here with anyone?"

She shook her head, "No. Uh, I didn't feel the need to ask anyone. Not that special of an occasion, you know?"

Larry nodded in understanding, and then noticed Electra walking up to them, holding two glasses of punch. "Oh, hey Electra!" He waved to her and she smiled at him, not quite able to wave. Wolfe sighed in frustration.

"Well, I should be going. Erm, see you around?" She sadly smiled at him, and he felt a bit sorry for her but smiled back.

"See you."

Wolfe quickly turned away and Electra handed Larry his glass of punch. "Here you go, they still got a lot if you finish it quickly and want another."

"Oh, thanks." Larry smiled at her but felt a bit awkward - he felt awkward around both girls now, but still wondered if they really did like him. He decided that only time would tell, but at the same time, he didn't want to lead both of them on. Love triangles were confusing, and he had a bad feeling he was stuck in one. With another grin, the pair headed to the dance floor, ready to forget about all their worries.

Amethyst didn't know why she bothered showing up, she was not having a great time. Sure she came here with Gabby, but she had no idea where she went off to. Currently she was leaning against the punch table alone, trying to have a good time and not be miserable. As if things couldn't get worse, a certain celebrity toad came up to her.

"This place sucks, huh?" Zip crossed his arms and tried to look cool, while Amethyst shrugged.

"It could be better."

"Yeah, like if Abigail wasn't here." Zip scoffed and looked over at the red-head in question, his blonde hair flopping about. "Man, she's the worst, am I right?"

Amethyst felt a certain sense of deja-vu, and remembered how it all started with Roy. They bonded over not liking Abigail, and then he played her like a damn fiddle. No, she was not going to go through that again. She figured Zip just wanted to make Abigail jealous. "Dude, what do you want?"

Zip was a bit confused. "What?"

"I said," She put her glass of punch down on the table. "What do you want? To make her jealous, using me? Yeah, I'll pass."

"What?" Zip was more confused, but then remembered how Roy used her. "Oh. Oh no - no, Amethyst, sweetie you got it all wrong."

She laughed a bit bitterly. "Really? You are just like the rest, I swear every guy in this school is a player or something. Just be open about your feelings, go tell Abigail that you really do still like her-"

"But I don't!" Zip's face was tinted red - not in anger or embarrassment, just frustration. "Look, I know what it's like to be played. I feel like Abigail played me. Do you really think I want her back? And that I'd treat you so badly? I know how you feel. I was just trying to relate."

Now Amethyst felt bad. Her magenta eyes fluttered back and forth as she pondered what exactly to say. It was silent for a few moments, until she finally breathed out a quick, and quiet apology.

"It's cool," Zip leaned back against the table now. "I get it. You put up walls because you don't wanna be played again, I don't blame you. But if you put up walls, you'll never let the good people through."

She nodded a bit, thinking it over. He was right. Was Zip actually a bit wise? She shook her head - even though he was nice right now, he _was_ an egotistical self-centred toad, but maybe, just maybe, he cared about someone other than himself: Abigail. She felt a bit sorry for him now, maybe they weren't that different. Maybe they could actually form a friendship.

"Besides, if you put up walls around me, you'll miss out on a totally cool guy letting you be his friend."

"Hold on - letting me?" Amethyst sighed deeply - she knew it was too good to be true. "Nope. I'm out, you're too full of yourself. Talk to me when you learn how to actually talk to people." And with that she walked away, leaving her punch behind. Amethyst wasn't the type of person to hang with people who thought better of themselves over others, at least not openly. She didn't want to be bothered with Zip, but he thought otherwise.

He laughed a bit to himself, and walked away as well, but kept her on his mind. He thought she was interesting, and thought that they were just a little bit similar.

Now, where exactly was Gabby? She was sat outside on a hill just outside the school, lost in her thoughts. She wasn't sad or anything, just a bit tired. She wasn't one to get involved in drama, no, she tried not to pay it any mind. But this past week was a bit hard, people had been on her case for still being friends with Amethyst. Everyone still thought that she was the one who started the fire, but Gabby knew it wasn't her. Hell, she heard Doopliss and Mimi talking about it! Oh how she wanted to tell everyone that, but she couldn't - she had no proof.

She blew a piece of hair out of her face and scanned the area around her. She was alone, but she didn't feel alone. She felt someone's presence. She didn't know how, but Gabby knew that someone was around her. Glancing from side to side, nobody was to be found. Until she saw a glimpse of a white sheet behind a tree. Was… Doopliss hiding?

Stepping on a few leaves, she stood up and made her way over to the tree and sure enough, Doopliss was hiding there. She crossed her arms and leaned against the tree, "Can I help you?"

He was a bit surprised, but quickly narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah, actually. I know that you know."

"Know what?"

"Oh, you know."

Gabby tried not to laugh at how vague the duplighost was, then she remembered what he did, and her face fell. He noticed, "Aha! I knew it, you _do_ know."

"What, know that you set the fire to the Koopa's-?"

"Shut up!" He quickly covered her mouth and frantically looked around, making sure no one else was there. "Great, you don't know how to keep your mouth shut. I swear, you better not have told anyone."

Gabby rolled her yellow eyes at him, and spat out sarcastically, "No, I told the entire school and all of them believed me. What, do you think I'm stupid?"

He growled and stepped back. "Gabby, if you tell a single soul, I can promise you right now that you'll regret it. You don't even know what I'm capable of."

"Uh, yeah, I do actually." She growled out back at him. "You can shapeshift into other people to frame them for insane crimes."

He chuckled, his pupils seeming to disappear for just a second, and he turned away. "You have no idea."

She shivered as she watched him walk away - god, couldn't people just stop with the drama? It was ridiculous. She didn't want to be involved in all of this. She wrapped her arms around herself and headed back into the gym - she wanted to find Amethyst.

However, blocking the door, was a certain hot-headed duo - Roy and Abigail of course, and they looked to be bickering about something. Gabby didn't want to snoop around though, so she took another route. But what exactly were the two talking about?

"L _ook_ , this drama between us is just pointless." Roy rubbed his forehead in frustration and Abigail huffed.

"Yeah, well who's the one who tried to make me jealous and played some poor girl? All we ever do is fight Roy, and you expect us to date?"

Just a few minutes ago, Roy took Abigail into the hall and asked her to be his girlfriend - well, he didn't really ask her, he kind of just stated it which angered Abigail to no end, which brings us to now.

"It's normal for couples to fight! Abigail, you can't deny the chemistry between us-"

"Or the anger we feel whenever we see each other!" She snapped at him, then tried to regain her composure. "Look. Do you _really_ think we would have a happy, healthy relationship? All we do is try to make the other one jealous. This isn't a good base for a relationship."

Roy groaned loudly and lightly punched the wall next to her. "Jeez! Why are you putting so much thought into this?"

She was a bit hurt - she gets called a player for being carefree with relationships, but now that she's putting thought into them, she's still called out for it. She turned away from him and took a deep breath. "We're not getting together Roy. I honestly think the best thing for us to do is just… move on from each other, and _really_ move on. We're not good together."

"What does that even mean?!" He was getting more frustrated by the second. "We haven't even tried to be together yet!"

"Yes, we have!" She turned back around and stared him down. "But we've never made it far enough to actually become official because we're always at each other's throats! For crying out loud, ever since you came back, my life's gone to crap!" She looked down at the floor, her voice cracking. "I _fought_ some innocent girl because of you, my best friend hates me because of you, and Zip felt betrayed because we couldn't stop thinking about each other which is what we should've done in the first place!"

"Abig-"

"No!" She shrieked, her hands shaking a bit. "I'm done with these games - I'm getting my life back to normal, back to what it's supposed to be, and you're not a part of it because we bring out the very worst in each other. We both deserve better."

"Oh really?" He stepped forward, a bit mad. "We _had_ better. You could've been with Mr. Prince Charming but you _chose_ me, Abigail. And I chose you. We're like - I dunno - meant to be!"

"Don't you realise how possessive you sound right now?!" She stepped backwards, away from him. "I'm not playing these stupid games with you. Whatever kind of twisted relationship we have is over. I'm getting my life back."

She quickly turned around and ran away, something she was good at doing. She felt mentally drained - what kind of person had she turned into?

Meanwhile, back in the gymnasium where the dance was being held, Luvbi took place on the stage, a black microphone in her dainty hand. She tapped it a few times, causing some feedback. The students groaned and covered their ears, and she grinned sheepishly.

"Oops." Though she was sorry, she was trying not to laugh at the sight. It was a bit funny seeing all her fellow classmates covering their ears and looking like they had just heard nails scraping a chalkboard. "Ahem, fellow classmates!"

The student body all turned to face Luvbi, and she felt empowered and proud of it. She took a second to marvel at what she had organized - their normally dark and dreary gym had been decorated to look somewhat like something straight out of a fairytale. There were twinkling lights all throughout the room, which really set the scene in her own opinion. Some things were out of place though… she looked at and grimaced at the cruddy drawings plastered on the wall. Yeah, the art class seemed to want to help decorate so they figured 'Hey! Let's draw pictures for this thing and messily tape them on the walls. Yeah, that sounds good!'. Luvbi sighed, they were a sight for sore-eyes but oh well, too late to take them down now.

She stood up straight, brushing off her white dress. "Thank thee for attending this year's homecoming!" The crowd roared with applause and Luvbi blushed a bit. She felt so honoured. "Thus endeth today's dance, I hope thee all hath a safe drive home!" She felt a bit robotic saying this - she was required to say this.

Everyone knew this was their cue to leave, and so they did. Within minutes the parking lot was full. Norman was busy waiting for the lot to empty out a bit because he didn't want to get hit by a car or anything, and he just happened to notice Zip bothering poor Amethyst again. He sighed deeply, he truly didn't like Zip Toad. He didn't know much about Amethyst honestly, just that lots of people were bothering her. He didn't know what Zip's little plan was, but he didn't trust him.

Strolling over with a grin, he gave Zip a slightly intimidating look. Well, sort of. From Zip's perspective it looked more… insane? He had a toothy grin followed by narrowed, sharp eyes. Yeah, it was a bit terrifying to say the least. Zip immediately backed off, and Amethyst smiled at Norman with relief.

"Thanks for that," She crossed her arms and watched Zip walk away. "I don't know what this guy wants from me honestly."

Norman nodded, and adjusted his bowtie. "Yeah, I heard you have it pretty rough lately. That kinda sucks."

She laughed a bit sarcastically and shook her head. "It's cool, I guess it's what happens when you speak your mind y'know? I wish I could be more like you, you always seem so cheery." She noticed Gabby pulling up in her car, ready to give Amethyst a ride. "Well, here's my ride. See ya around, dude." She climbed into the passenger seat, and Norman smiled a bit bitterly.

"If only people knew," He was a bit sad - people seemed to think he couldn't understand what they went through since he tried to be happy all the time but truly? He wasn't. He just didn't want to focus on the darks in his life.

Oh well. He figured maybe it was best for not many people to know about all the dark parts in his life - that was for him to know, and maybe some close friends. Either way, he wasn't about to go flaunting about it. He just wanted to make sure nobody went through the same stuff he did. He narrowed his eyes at Zip who was watching Amethyst and Gabby drive away - just what was that celebrity up to?

After a night of festivities, which seemed to fly by honestly, everyone seemed exhausted but also on edge. Things were nowhere near close to settling down - actually, it seemed like things were getting worse and worse. Everyone silently hoped that things worked out in their favour, but everyone's wishes were slightly different so obviously that wasn't possible. The only question now was, how _would_ everything work out, and when?

 **A/N: This story has over 1000 views - uh, wow! Thank you all! I really appreciate it and please leave me a review if you enjoyed the chapter! My plans for upcoming chapters are: picture day (next chapter), halloween, and the play starring the drama class. I'm always open to suggestions on future chapters. Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 7: Smile for the Camera

**A/N: Welcome back once again to another chapter! Thank you for coming back for another chapter, or if you're new here: welcome! Make sure to read all previous chapters if you want to be caught up with the plot. I'm glad you guys seem to be enjoying this fic so far, it's been fun to write (I wrote this entire chapter immediately after uploading the last one). And I gotta thank the people who review (*cough* Miss Mario *cough*) because I really enjoy reading reviews, they make my days better and my days haven't been so well lately, so I really appreciate reviews. And also thank you to the people who have favourited and followed this story, I appreciate that as well! Honestly, thank all of you for even just reading this fic, it means the world to me. I have a few questions for you guys at the end of this chapter, so please be sure not to skip over it! Alright, that's enough of my rambling, let's get on with the chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.**

It was Monday once again, the previous weekend seemed to fly by for the students of Darklands High. Even though they weren't mentally put together, they all certainly looked organized and happy and healthy, most of them at least. Why, you may ask? It was picture day, the day everyone tried to look their very best for a picture that would still end up looking bad anyways due to the school's cheap camera equipment.

You'd think Kammy Koopa would put some more money towards her school, but no. She held fundraisers a lot, and did make good money as a principal and being Bowser's second-in-command as a side-job, so where did all her money go? Students assumed it went to her office.

Nobody had ever been in Kammy's office. Yes, when students are in trouble they're sent to the 'office', but that means the main office where the secretaries are. Like the rest of the school it's dark, grimey, and sometimes weird stains can be found on the walls. Creepy, right? Everyone thinks so.

Basically, the school looked like a dump, but Kammy had loads of money, so everyone assumed that she put all her money into making her office amazing. Lots of rumours were made about her office. Some of the students thought that it was like a witch's hideout - filled with potions, spell books, the sort. Some thought it was some kind of dream suite - covered in velvet, red lights, maybe even a television. Others thought maybe it was just a mini club, complete with a dancefloor and strobe lights.

The truth? Well, nobody knew except Kammy herself. And when someone asked about it, she shrugged it off and said that it was 'just a plain old office', but she had a sly look on her face. Even Bowser didn't know, and _that's_ saying something.

Back to the students. Classes were - surprisingly - cancelled today. Weird, right? Well, Darklands had a different method for picture day. Everyone gathers in the gym for the entire day, bored out of their mind, waiting in long lines to have their picture taken. Some of you may think 'wow, that's so cool, they miss their classes for the whole day!'. Yeah, not cool. You had to wait for a few hours at least to have your photo taken, in a hot gym, filled with hundreds of kids. You can imagine why it's not an ideal situation, but if not: as the hours go by, the sweatier you get, so the worse you look for your photo.

Basically, it's a race to be one of the first to get your picture taken. You want to get there as early as you can to get your picture taken ASAP - while you still look nice.

As luck would have it, this was the day that the Koopa's car decided to break down in the middle of the road on the way to school. They planned to leave a bit early, so they could be early for pictures. Well, that plan was certainly ruined now.

"Seriously?!" Ludwig cursed at the wheel, he couldn't believe it. He had told his father strictly a week ago, 'our car is busted and one day it's just going to break down, _fix it_ '. Bowser of course waved his hand and was all 'oh yes yes, I know, I'll fix it'.

Ludwig hated his father sometimes.

"Luuudwig," Wendy whined loudly. "How are we gonna get to school now? Pretty doesn't stay pretty for too long you know."

"Oh, we _all_ know Wendy." Iggy rolled his eyes. "You haven't been pretty in… how old are you?"

A high heel was thrown right in Iggy's face, shattering one of his lenses in his glasses. "Argh! Wendy!" He freaked out, and she giggled.

"Oops. My hand slipped."

"Stop it!" Morton glared at his siblings harshly. "What we need to do instead of fighting is call someone to fix our car up, or to give us a ride."

"Yeah, and how long'll that be, genius?" Roy turned around from the passenger seat with a scowl on his face. "We should'a fixed this car up ourselves, King Dad's too lazy to ever do anything not involving princesses."

"What if we would've painted Princess Peach's face on the hood of our car?" Lemmy piped up, and Iggy laughed a bit.

"Not the time for jokes, guys." Larry complained loudly, fixing his mohawk up a bit.

"Okay, plan!" Morton spoke up again and whipped out his phone. "Don't worry guys, I'll call my friend Gabby and ask her to pick us all up. I'm sure she'd love to."

He dialed the number, and put her on speakerphone. She picked up after a few rings, " _Hello?_ "

"Gabby! It's me, Morton Koopa Jr, from school! We have drama together!" He grinned wildly, and his siblings rolled their eyes.

" _...Yeah, I know Morton, I have you as a contact. Can I help you?_ " Gabby sounded a bit tired, probably from being up at 6:30 in the morning.

"You got a car right?" He asked her, and after hearing a quiet 'mhm' from the other end, he continued. "Can you pick me and my siblings up? Our car broke down."

" _...Aren't there like, ten of you?_ "

"No! Only seven."

" _Yeaaah, my car seats two. Including the driver - me. Plus I pick Amethyst up every morning, so…_ " She trailed off, and everyone in the car groaned loudly. " _Aren't you guys rich?! Call a cab!_ "

"That's what _I'm_ thinkin'!" Roy piped in, and Gabby rolled her eyes, though they couldn't see it.

" _Right. Well, sorry guys, can't help ya. See you at school!_ " And with a click, she ended the call. Morton sighed heavily - that was a disappointment.

What were they to do now? Ludwig protested calling a cab, but he also protested calling for help. His siblings really wondered why he was in charge sometimes. He wanted to solve the issue himself, but by now it was almost quarter to seven. Each of them tried calling their own friends, but either they weren't awake or they were unable to drive them.

"Ludwig!" Larry complained once again, he was cranky in the morning. "Just call a freakin' limo!"

"No!" Ludwig frowned. "I can take care of this problem myself." And with that, he climbed out of their car and slammed the door shut, where it then proceeded to fall off. "Oh you've got to be kidding me." Angrily, he called his father, who of course did not pick up. He was busy sleeping - ugh. How long did that man sleep for?! It's not like it was before sunrise or anything. Obviously.

"That's it." Iggy got out of the car, a bit clumsily since he could only really see out of one eye. "I'm walking to school, I'm not wasting time here."

"Iggy," Ludwig growled out. "I'm in charge, you do what I say. I will solve this problem myself, I used to be very crafty you know!"

"No one cares!" Roy called out from the car, and Ludwig rolled his eyes.

Iggy crossed his arms angrily, narrowing his eyes at his annoying sibling. "Yeah, well you can solve this problem, but while you do that, I'm gonna remove myself from this problem and just walk!"

"It's like a half hour walk to school!"

"Who cares!"

Larry also came out of the car now, cranky as ever. "I'm with Iggy, I'm out of here."

"Oh no you are not!" Ludwig was a bit sassy now. "Guys, I can fix this! Just give me five minutes."

"We've been here for fifteen minutes now!"

"Yeah, well, I needed some time to think!"

Eventually, all seven koopas got out of the car and began arguing over what to do. While they were doing this, they didn't notice the smoke coming from the hood of the car until it was too late. The car exploded with a loud bang, and the siblings stood there in shock. They were fine, no injuries, but covered in black soot. Breaking them out of the trance was a high pitched shriek of horror. Everyone turned to look at Wendy, but she shrugged.

"Wasn't me!"

They then noticed Roy looking as if he were about to shriek again. Though he was a tough guy, Roy put much work into his appearance, so to have this happen? Yeah, within minutes, all hell broke loose. They began arguing again - even Lemmy, who in all honesty had no clue what was going on, he just liked yelling.

Of course, to people passing by, this looked a bit ridiculous. And who else drives by than Gabby and Amethyst? "Oh my grambi." Amethyst noticed the scene first, sipping on her soda from McDonald's. Gabby noticed as well, and tried not to laugh.

"Well, that's unfortunate."

They stopped by the koopas, and Gabby rolled down her window. "Geez, you guys weren't kidding about not having a ride."

They all nodded, and Roy noticed Amethyst in the passenger's seat, who was looking at anyone but him. She had put a bit extra effort into her look today - rather than her naturally wavy hair, she had curled her hair and put on just a bit of eyeliner and mascara. It looked nice on her, and Roy felt the need to comment on it. "Amethyst! Lookin' good."

Amethyst rolled her eyes, "Wish I could say the same for you." She was still upset with him, and had the right to be.

"Yeah, I'm here too, thanks Roy." Gabby mumbled under her breath, not a big fan of the bully koopa. Gabby had also put a bit of effort into her look, she had curled her hair just like Amethyst but put her hair up in a ponytail, which suited her quite nicely. Roy ignored her, and wondered why Amethyst was so upset with him. Gee, it's not like he used her or anything just to get back at a certain redhead. Nope. He was a saint!

Okay, that was sarcasm. Roy was anything but a saint. He didn't _intentionally_ play with Amethyst's feelings to get back at Abigail, but that's just what happened. He didn't _know_ that the two girls were going to duke it out, but again, that's just what happened. Really, he didn't go out of his way to make her life miserable! It just happened.

Buuut, now that Abigail had completely rejected him? He thought Amethyst wasn't looking too bad herself. Pft, who needs stuck up popular girls? They disappoint him. As the two girls drove away, he had a new plan in mind: forget Abigail and go for Amethyst. He knew he could easily win her over, he just had to play his cards right.

Back to the situation at hand. They were pretty much stranded, and after the explosion, guess who's phones weren't working? Theirs. Now they really couldn't call a cab, or a repair service. "Better start walking." Iggy mumbled, and the group reluctantly followed him. It was going to be a long walk to school, that's one thing they could agree on.

At school, there were already a ton of people there. Pictures had already started to be taken, and the lines were already insanely long. Two girls waiting together were Candy and Cheryl, who both looked absolutely lovely today. After the incident at homecoming - Iggy running away from Cheryl despite being her date - the two girls vowed to not think about a jerk like him, though it was hard. They had a sleepover the night before and did each other's makeup, Candy even let Cheryl borrow one of her cute dresses.

"I still can't believe he did that." Cheryl couldn't get her mind off of Iggy. What had she done wrong? "What did I do wrong?"

Candy shook her head. "You didn't do _anything_ wrong Cheryl. Who just runs off on their date? A jerk, that's who!" Candy couldn't help but think if he'd done the same thing if she was his date instead. She brushed that thought aside, and tried to comfort Cheryl. "Forget him. Who needs a guy like that?"

Cheryl nodded softly, but still felt unsure. She really did like Iggy, and wanted to talk to him about that, but feared he'd run off once again. Maybe the best thing to do was to wait it out.

Another group waiting together in line were Norman, Lindsay, and Vivian, who in all honesty didn't look too different than they usually do. That doesn't mean they didn't put much effort into their looks - they just always look nice, so today they didn't really need to change anything. Lindsay was currently ranting to them, who were listening attentively.

"And then, she texts me 'why did you block me on instagram?'. Like that wasn't obvious! I don't know what Abigail wants from me." Lindsay was talking about her situation with Abigail of course. The ginger was trying to make amends with her, but the brunette wasn't having any of that drama. Nope. She was done.

"Well, I think she wants another chance Lindsay." Vivian nervously twirled a piece of her hair, looking down at the shorter girl. "But it's up to you if you wanna give it to her - just remember, she was your best friend."

Lindsay and Norman both cringed at 'was'. It was always hard losing a good friend, but what other choice did Lindsay have? She knew she didn't fit in with the rest of Abigail's friends - er, that is, were they all even friends anymore? Huh. She didn't even know. She knew Mimi and Wendy were fighting about something, and Luvbi was fed up with all of them, but that's pretty much it. Either way - they were the stereotypical mean girls, and she liked to think she wasn't one of them.

She looked at both of her new friends and grinned at them. She was much happier with these two anyways - they understood her. And so did Lemmy, and sweet O'Chunks! Yeah, these guys were always understanding and never had drama, she loved it! But, did a part of her secretly miss Abigail?

She remembered their sleepovers, staying up all night gossiping about boys, or about drama with girls. They spent nearly every holiday together, they were practically sisters. Their families loved each of the girls, whether they were related to them or not. Lindsay remembered pigging out with Abigail on thanksgiving, giving each other blind makeovers, crying over sad movies, surprising each other with christmas gifts, and always being there for each other.

That's where it went wrong - Abigail wasn't there for Lindsay. And she couldn't move on quite so easily from that. She rarely held grudges, but when she did, she held them for a while. So for now at least, Lindsay was still mad at Abigail.

Another person that's good at holding grudges was Amethyst, who walked into the gym with Gabby, where the pictures were being held. She was digging a fry out of her take-out bag, when she bumped in someone. "Watch it!" She hissed out, and looked up to see who it was.

Electra brushed off her outfit and scowled at Amethyst. "How about _you_ watch it? Also, food isn't allowed in here." She walked away a bit angrily, and Amethyst quietly mimicked her.

"'Food isn't allowed in here', like I care." She bit down on a fry and there she began holding a grudge against Electra. Yeah, Amethyst could be quite bitter, which a toad had recently found out. As if her day couldn't go any worse, here came Zip.

"Hey, Amethyst." Zip greeted her, and Gabby was confused.

"Since when were you two friends?"

Amethyst groaned loudly and rolled her eyes. "We're not." She turned to face Zip, who looked a bit hurt. "What do you want from me? Why do you keep talking to me?"

"Amethyst, darling, I am offended." He placed a hand on his chest in fake offense. "All I wanna do is get to know you! Is that so bad?"

Gabby eyed him warily, and then looked at Amethyst, who just looked exhausted. "Fine," The noirette mumbled. "I can try to be friends with you, though I still don't even know why you wanna be friends with me."

Zip grinned happily and nearly jumped up and down in excitement. "Great! I'll see you later, _friend_." He winked at her and walked away, and Gabby was utterly confused.

"What the hell just happened?"

"I'll tell you later," Amethyst walked away to go stand in line, and Gabby blinked, a bit dazed.

"Uh… okay?"

Hours passed by, and students got more and more bored by the minute. The entire school was packed into one gym, and of course, it was getting hotter and hotter the more people entered. By noon, everyone was a sweating mess. It was fall, but the temperature was still hot out and Kammy refused to turn the air conditioning on.

To add to the awful day, sort of like the cherry on top, was the fact that since it was technically still a school day, no one was allowed to leave the school until the final bell rang, which was still in a few hours. Even students who had got their picture taken weren't allowed to leave the building - but they could wander the school, which was slightly better.

Now, most people were bored, but one person in particular had a rather nasty plan. See, Doopliss was not a nice person. This was a school in Darklands after all - Bowser's kingdom, so no one _really_ cared if you did something mean. In fact, some teachers encouraged it. This isn't to say that every student is a villain or anything like the sort, but it contrasted harshly against Mush High's students - the Mushroom Kingdom's high school.

Back to the point - Doopliss had a trick up his sleeve. Remember him giving Gabby a nice, friendly threat at homecoming? Well, he wasn't kidding. He had a mean plan, sort of as a warning 'don't tell anyone what I did or you'll get something even worse than this'. Gabby had no idea of this until around 1 in the afternoon, where Mr. L, the robotics and math teacher, passed by her and had to do a double take.

"Gabby?" He asked a bit curiously, "Why are you in line again?"

"Uh…" She was confused, to say the least. "I've been in line all day, what do you mean?"

He laughed a bit before handing her a card - her student card. "You don't need to pull my leg, I know you probably just wanted to ask for your student card with your picture on it! It's uh… a nice pose you chose to do, Gabby." She raised an eyebrow and quickly took her card.

On it was all her student information: her full name, her homeroom class, and her photo. But… oh geez. Gabby grimaced at the picture - what the hell was that?

It was her, but she had never gotten her picture taken today. She knew it was Doopliss - it had to be, she knew she didn't take a photo that day and her eyes in the photo looked a little duller than normal. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if it was a nice picture, but it wasn't. He had posed as her, and made such an ugly face - he posed in such an unflattering angle, making it seem as if she had a million chins and a unibrow! What the hell was his deal, and how did he even do that?!

She stormed out of line and looked around for him, quickly finding him. He was the only duplighost at this school anyways, so it's not like it was hard for her to find him. He didn't notice her coming, so when she turned him around and lifted him up by his neck, he was a little shocked to say the least. "Ack!"

"You little demon, what the hell is your issue?! You have five seconds before I pound the dupli outta you, and you're just a pathetic little ghost!" This was uncalled of for Gabby, because she never really cared enough to make any enemies, but this was too far. She literally hadn't done _anything_ and now for her senior year, she was stuck with an awful picture of her.

"Put me down…" He croaked out, barely able to breathe. "And I'll tell ya!" Reluctantly, she put him down, and he coughed a lot. "Geez, you're stronger than you look."

"Don't care, tell me what your deal is."

He managed out a little chuckle before standing up straight. "Think of this as a warning - I can do so much worse if you tell a soul about what I did."

"Is that all that was? A warning?" Gabby sneered at him, narrowing her yellow eyes. "You wanna play a game, Doopliss? Huh?" She crossed her arms, and he laughed right in her face.

"Is that a challenge, Gabby? Because I'm not scared." He stepped forward, and his eyes flashed red. "You don't know who you're messing with."

"Oh no, I'm fully aware." The girl cleared her throat and smirked at him. "I'm a Gadd. I'm not scared of any ghosts." And with that, she turned around and walked away. She wasn't scared of a freak in a sheet like him - she knew how to handle ghosts, especially pesky ones like him. Oh yeah, she'd handle him-

She walked right into someone, none other than Wolfe. "Ow!" The lycan rubbed her head, mumbling to herself, "Jeez, that's happened a lot lately…"

"Wolfe!" Gabby stared at her in shock - yeah, she could use her help. "Just the girl I wanted to see."

"Uh… I am?" The white haired girl was a bit confused, she hadn't really talked with Gabby before.

"Yes!" Gabby clapped her hands together, thinking of the perfect scheme. "You like pranks right?"

"I sure do," Wolfe was a bit more interested now.

"Here's what I need your help with…"

Around 2 in the afternoon, the two girls were peeking out from behind the bleachers, watching Doopliss wait in line. He was looking around skeptically, as if he was waiting for something to happen. He had no idea.

Gabby was a smart girl, she took notice of the small things, just like her genius grandfather. She knew that the photographers the school were very tired, who wouldn't be after taking pictures non-stop of students for a few hours? Gabby was also very good at disguising herself and other people.

Okay, no, that was a lie, but she assumed it was easy enough. So, she dressed Wolfe up as a photographer, though she wasn't quite sure what those looked like so she just dressed her up like an old man. Close enough, right? She was decked out in a fake moustache, was borrowing Gabby's glasses, and was wearing a huge sweater. Yeah, it was a pretty solid disguise. Right before walking up to one of the photographers - the one Doopliss was in line for - she whispered to Gabby, "You owe me one."

"Yeah yeah, go get 'em tiger!"

"You're the one actually getting him, but alright!"

Wolfe made her way over to the photographer, as Gabby watched from the shadows. She was practically blind now, and as far as she could tell, Wolfe's disguise was looking good. The other students seemed to think so too, no one really batted an eye at her. Within a minute, she was in charge of taking the photos.

Gabby gave her the simple job: pose as a photographer and take a picture at the right moment. What was the right moment, you ask? You'll have to wait and see.

Gabby's own part in this plan was a little more… challenging. It would be simple if she had her glasses with her, but she gave them to Wolfe to disguise her face. Now, Gabby was slowly approaching the place where students sit for their picture. Doopliss was up next, Gabby needed her aim to be absolutely perfect for this shot, though things were very blurry.

"Next! Come take a seat, sonny boy!" Wolfe called out in an old 'grandfather'-like voice, and Doopliss strolled up to the seat. "Uh… okay, smile for the camera!"

Wolfe looked over at Gabby to make sure she was ready for it, but as soon as she did, a pie came hurtling towards the back on Doopliss' head. With a loud 'splat', he was coated in a cherry pie. At the exact same time, there was a bright flash and Wolfe grinned. "Wow, lovely photo. Okay, next!"

"I-what?!" Doopliss looked down at his, now red, sheet. "No, I need a retake. Come on, that- that wasn't fair!" He whirled around looking for the victim, but Gabby had already ran away.

"Nope, sorry, no retakes! Now can you please move, you're holding up the line here."

"W… Wolfe? Is that you?!" Doopliss narrowed his eyes, and Wolfe quickly set down the camera.

"Uh, nope! Gotta go, got things to do, people to see, bye!" She ran off, and Doopliss considered running after her, but instead he just grumbled and wiped some cherries out of his eye.

"Freakin' Gabby… I'll get her."

The day was nearly over, and just then, the Koopalings finally arrived at the school. 'But wait', you say to yourself, 'Their car broke down around 7 am, and it's around 3 pm! What were they doing for so long?'. That's a story for another time, they went on a quest of their own. For now, they just arrived at school still covered in soot, grime, and dirt, ready for their pictures. They trudged along to the photographers, and at this point there were no longer any lines left, though a few people scattered around.

In just a few minutes, the final bell rang. Everyone was dismissed, and Candy saw Iggy walking by. "Iggy!" She needed to have a word with him, what was going on with him at homecoming? She cared about him, and about Cheryl, so she felt the need to sort things out for everyone's sake.

He turned around to look at her, and his breath caught in his throat, causing him to cough in her face. "S-sorry!" He turned away from her. He found her so pretty, and same with Cheryl, so you can imagine how hard it was for the poor koopa.

He took his love triangle situation much more seriously than Larry did. Iggy truly cared and was close to both of the girls he was crushing on - he wasn't a hundred percent certain they liked him too but he had a feeling.

Larry though? Well, he wasn't quite as close with Electra or Wolfe yet. Things were quite different: Larry wasn't sure if he crushed on either of the girls, the girls weren't as close as Candy and Cheryl so they weren't trying to preserve their friendship, and they were much more upfront about their feelings than the other pair of girls. So yes, things contrasted quite a lot, but one thing was for sure: both of the guys were still sorting out their feelings.

Back to the current situation, Candy was looking up at Iggy, who seemed quite distant. "Cheryl told me what happened at homecoming."

"Nothing happened."

"I saw it, Iggy." Candy was firm in her tone of voice, and Iggy looked guilty. He regretted running out on Cheryl, but he wanted to do the exact same thing here. Candy sounded hurt, and Iggy felt awful, but he truly didn't know what to do with all his feelings. "What's the matter, what happened? Is this a personal problem, or something else?"

"It's nothing, Candy." The green-haired koopa shook his head. "I gotta go, long walk home. See ya." He nearly sprinted away, and Candy was left standing there in shock.

Meanwhile, Gabby had met Wolfe behind the school, so Wolfe could give her back her glasses. "Here ya go, did I do a good job?"

"Oh yeah!" Gabby put her glasses on, and revealed Doopliss' student card. The photo was iconic: The pie had just hit Doopliss in the back of his head, and cherry filling was splatting everywhere, all over him. The face he made was just priceless- yeah, Gabby was very proud of her little plan. "So, what do I owe you now?"

Wolfe smirked a bit, her fangs showing here. "Well… you pulled a prank on Doopliss, so I want to pull a prank on Electra."

"Yeah, sounds reasonable."

"Wait, really?"

Gabby rolled her eyes jokingly. "Yeah, pretty much the entire school knows about your little feud with each other, including Larry."

"Wait-" Wolfe was beyond stunned. "Larry knows about it?!"

Gabby nodded, the curls in her hair bobbing up and down. "Morton told me all about it. He was the one who told Larry, since he was so oblivious. Apparently Larry doesn't know what to do about it."

The young lycan had to think for a moment. "So… if I sabotage Electra's chances with Larry just a bit, do you think he'd develop some kind of crush on me? Maybe? If I get her out of the picture?"

"Well, I'm not saying he doesn't have a crush on either of you - according to Morton, he thinks he might like you both just a bit. The thing is, now you gotta focus on making your connection with him a bit stronger."

"Okay… so, focus on him and I, and not on Electra. Got it. I'll still need your help though."

"Hm?" Gabby tilted her head, wondering what Wolfe would want out of this.

"Can you maybe, I dunno, set me and Larry up on a date? I don't care how you do it, I'd just love for it to happen. Thanks Gabby, see ya around!" Wolfe spoke quickly and then rushed away, leaving Gabby alone with her thoughts.

"Uh, yeah. See ya." ' _Darn,_ ' she thought. ' _How am I gonna set those two up and make it look casual so the date isn't awkward?_ '. She knew she needed some help, and she knew just where to find it.

To no surprise, a small group of friends were gathering on the stage, since some of them shared a love for theatre and some of them were just there to support. Lindsay, Lemmy, and Ludwig were all on the school's main stage, acting out some lines from _Romeo and Juliet_ in preperation for the play, while Vivian, Norman, and O'Chunks watched (and occasionally clapped).

Gabby made a grand entrance, and the six others turned to look at her in a bit of confusion. "I'm here to speak with the, uh, matchmakers?"

Immediately Lindsay and Lemmy brightened up and ran over to her. "Hi, here we are, how can we help ya?" Lemmy jumped up and down, eager to help.

"I need to set up two people…"

 **OPINION TIME (because I love giving you guys what you want and hearing your thoughts!):** **Do you guys want me to write a few chapters about (not completely, but somewhat like a side-plot) the Mushroom Kingdom's high school 'Mush High' or is that too much for this story? If you guys think it would be interesting or just too much for this story please let me know: and if you like it, let me know who you'd wanna see as a student attending it, and if they have any kind of relationship with your character if they're in the story.**

 **Also, much bigger question: I'm not asking** _ **who**_ **you'd like to see end up with Iggy and Larry, I'm wondering if I should even let anyone end up with them after all. Though I'd personally like to see the love triangles be resolved and let a relationship or two blossom, I feel as though it wouldn't be fair to the people who submitted the character that wouldn't end up with their love interest. Yes, I know 'that's just how life is', but in this story it doesn't** _ **have**_ **to be. I've been on the edge about that, so let me know your opinion on that!**

 **Finally, I'm thinking of doing a little small oneshot about why the Koopalings took so freakin' long to get to school this particular day. I have an idea or two, but I wouldn't want to include it in this story because it's a little off-topic in regards to the plot and everything. If you'd like to see that, let me know.**

 **And as always, thank you all for your reviews and if you have any ideas for future chapters please let me know! Next chapters will be halloween, the play, and then I'm debating doing a huge sleepover involving the girls and the guys (not together of course - or will they be together?) and maybe a huge field trip. Thanks for reading, please review (and sorry for this long note)!**


	9. Chapter 8: This is Halloween

A/N: Welcome back to yet another chapter - and happy Halloween! I hope all of you have or had a great day full of trick-or-treating, partying, or even just relaxing. Whatever you do, I hope you have a better day than I certainly did. That's besides the point - have a good Halloween, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry it's so short, I wrote all of this today. I've been up to my head in homework, so I really apologise if this chapter is rushed at all. I just wanted to get out a Halloween chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters are owned by Nintendo. I only own Abigail and Lindsay. All other characters belong to their respectful owners.

October 31st, Halloween night. Some may call it the 'night of terrors', and they would be right, though most of them are talking about monsters or anything like that. For the students of Darklands High? Yeah, they'd beg to differ that the real monsters are within some students. But tonight was not the night to worry about that - no, tonight was meant for partying, and which family hosted better parties than the Koopas?

Well, probably any family ever.

That's besides the point: tonight the Koopas were once again hosting a party (and secretly hoping the night wouldn't end in flames), and once again, everyone was going to show up. Honestly, who could resist? The Koopa's castle was huge, and they had went all out in decorating the place.

Their normally dreary and fiery castle was decked out in all kinds of decorations - orange and black were the most prominent though. Each of the koopas had decorated different parts of the castle though, which meant the themes weren't very… consistent.

Some of the boys - Roy, Larry and Morton - decorated parts of the castle in a more creepy way, kind of like a haunted house. Bowser Junior was forbidden to go through those parts of the castle, since he was still fairly young and would most likely get a bit scared.

The party had already started, everyone had already arrived and everyone was already mingling. Abigail leaned against a wall dressed as a traditional black cat. Yeah, it was a super plain and boring costume, but lately she didn't feel like putting much effort into anything. She sighed, placing her glass of red punch on a nearby table. Man, that brought back memories. She cringed just thinking of the last party the Koopa family threw, and she really regretted everything that happened.

Abigail stood up straight, dusting off her dress. She wasn't going to sit here and feel bad about her previous mistakes, but she wasn't going to ignore them either. She scanned the living room quickly, and spotted Amethyst standing a couple feet away. But, was she talking with…?

She quickly walked over, watching the pair with her sharp eyes. "Hi."

Amethyst and Zip Toad looked over at her, a bit confused as to why she was talking to them. Well, Amethyst was. Zip was just annoyed. "Ugh, great, just the gal I wanted to see this evening." He was dressed as… well, honestly nobody knew what he was supposed to be. Maybe a vampire? Who knew.

Amethyst rolled her eyes at him, clearly not amused. She was dressed as a punk-rocker, and the look definitely suited her. She had nothing to say, waiting for Abigail to say something. "...Thanks Zip. I just wanted to actually talk to Amethyst alone."

Zip scoffed, crossing his arms. "Yeah, right! What, do you wanna throw some more punch at her or somethin'?" He protectively put an arm around Amethyst, who immediately shoved him off.

"Zip, uh, how 'bout you go get me a drink? I'm cool with anything, thanks!" Amethyst pushed Zip away, and he obliged. As soon as he was out of earshot, Amethyst mumbled, "Why is he so annoying?"

Abigail smiled a bit, and cleared her throat. "Um, I just wanted to say sorry for… well, everything. I was a jerk. Like, a major jerk. I get it if you don't forgive me, I wouldn't either. I just wanted to say sorry because you deserve it."

Honestly, Amethyst was touched. She didn't expect an apology from confident and somewhat full-of-herself Abigail. "Well, thanks. I guess I'm not mad anymore, I shouldn't really hold grudges. Plus, it wasn't completely your fault, Roy purposely tried to make you jealous."

"I know." Abigail darkly spoke, narrowing her eyes. "God, he is such a jerk!"

"That's for sure." Amethyst agreed. "I can't believe we actually agree about something for once. No offense, we're just so different."

"None taken, I agree. But maybe we could try to be friends? We can bond over idiotic boys." Abigail managed a small smile, and Amethyst returned it.

"Why not? You seem like a way better friend than Zip over there," She pointed to the toad across the room. "He won't leave me alone lately, and I don't know why. It's weird. I think he's trying to get over you."

"Pfft. Why do you say that?"

"Well, all he can really talk about is you. He acts like he hates you but really I think he just misses you. Why would a guy genuinely like me?" She joked around a bit, and Abigail's eyes widened.

"Don't say that! Listen, the main reason I was so jealous was that I thought Roy moved on to someone way better: you." Abigail grinned at her once more, and Amethyst returned it.

"Thanks, Abigail."

The girls continued their conversation, finding more similarities between the two. It was shocking to say the least, especially to a certain koopa. "Oh you have got to be kidding me."

Roy was standing in shock along with Morton and Luvbi, who were confused. "What?" Roy was decked out in a zombie costume, and Morton and Luvbi were matching. They both dressed as Romeo and Juliet - but if you asked them about it, they'd swear to you that it was not a couples costume.

"Look!" He pointed to the two girls bonding, and he groaned loudly. "Damn, you've gotta be kidding! Those two are actually getting along?"

"Why art thou so surprised?" Luvbi questioned him, a bit confused still.

"They hated each other! They got in a fight and everything." He was utterly shocked, and Luvbi was irritated.

"What, art thou mad because thou can no longer play them both? Hmph! Good for them!" She declared. Morton smiled at how supportive she was of the new friendship between old enemies.

"I gotta agree, isn't it good that they're friends now? Why are you so mad?"

Roy sighed loudly and rather dramatically. "Yeah, no, I'm ecstatic for them! This is just lovely."

It was not lovely in his eyes. To put it bluntly: Roy is very self-centered, so he enjoyed seeing Abigail and Amethyst fight over him. But now? He knew they wouldn't fight over him anymore, and he was disappointed. He knew he wanted to win over at least of the girls, but now it was going to be way harder if they became good friends.

He began to wonder why they even made up anyways. Was Amethyst really so forgiving? And why did Abigail decide to apologize? He thought that they'd always hate each other, assuming Abigail would never apologize, but clearly he was wrong. Now that he thought about it, the two would probably end up to be pretty good friends. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that they're fairly similar to each other.

He shook his head and walked off, needing some time to himself. He had to get it together, this wasn't a night for stressing over girls, this was Halloween! It was the only night where you could scare someone and be a jerk, but no one could say you're a jerk because it's Halloween, people are supposed to get scared.

Either way, Roy needed to get his mind off of girls. He needed to prank someone - yeah, that's what he needed. And he knew just what to do.

Meanwhile, Gabby waited in the shadows of a dark corridor; it was almost pitch black. If you waved a hand in front of her face, chances are she wouldn't see it. She could barely see shadows coming down the corridor. What was she doing, you may ask?

You may remember the feud Doopliss and Gabby were currently having. Well, it wasn't quite a feud, more like a war. Gabby knew a secret Doopliss and Mimi were hiding from everyone, and they didn't like that. Doopliss had tried threatening Gabby in a few ways, but Gabby was never one to take threats like a wimp. No, she had bigger plans. She wasn't going to be bullied around by a pyromaniac freak.

That leads us to now. She knew her plan would work, just like it did on picture day. Her plans usually worked - well, not her recent one involving Larry and Wolfe… but that's off-topic. Right now she was focusing on a different kind of plan - one of revenge. Yes, she already got revenge on Doopliss, but what's salt on a wound? She had nothing to lose.

As if on cue, she saw a figure walk down the hallway - one covered by a sheet. Doopliss. One hand on a rope, she waited until they walked right where she had laid a trap…

"Hah!" She laughed loudly, pulling down on the rope and trapping her victim. "Gotcha! That's what you get, no one messes with a Gadd, 'specially not some lame ghost."

"Gabby?!" A more feminine voice called down, and the Gadd blinked in confusion. That was not Doopliss.

"...Lindsay?"

"Yeah, uh, what's this all about? Can you let me down please?" Her voice sounded strained, and Gabby felt a twang of guilt. She had caught the wrong person in her net-trap.

"Of course - sorry!" She released the rope and down went the net, Lindsay hitting the floor with a thud. "Oops."

"Ow…" Lindsay rubbed her head, getting out of the net. "What was that for?"

She was decked out in a ghost costume - a classic, white sheet with holes cut out for her eyes. It was funny knowing that Gabby was dressed in a ghostbusters costume - funny to everyone except Lindsay, maybe. She took the sheet off her head.

"Sorry, that wasn't meant for you. I thought you were Doopliss."

Lindsay glanced at her in confusion, but Gabby swore she was trying to hide a smile. No, that was just a trick of the shadows. "Doopliss? Why him?"

"We're not on good terms… I'm sure you know?"

"Oh, yeah! Duh!" Lindsay giggled a bit, slapping herself on the forehead. "Silly me! I can be such an airhead."

Gabby nodded, a little confused. "Yeah… shoot, this'll take a while to set up again." She looked down at her trap, which was now a mess.

Lindsay frowned, following Gabby's gaze. "Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, I'll see you around, gotta get to hanging out with my friends! Bye!" She rushed off around a corner, and Gabby waved her goodbye.

As soon as she turned the corner, she smirked widely, pulling out a phone - not hers - and texted a certain green-haired gal. 'Knew it. The 'ghostbuster' is planning on continuing this little battle. She has no idea what she's in for.'

A bright flash occurred, and standing in Lindsay's place was none other than Doopliss. He walked off, snickering to himself. He was the master of pranks, Gabby should've known better than to get involved in a fight with him.

Meanwhile, Mimi herself was watching the others with shifty eyes. She was in a witch costume, and happened to see Amethyst and Abigail bonding. She could barely believe it - she had no time for Doopliss' pettiness when she had issues of her own. Seriously, was that whole fire for nothing? All she wanted was to be the most popular girl in school, and it seemed as if everyone was getting in her way. She was so writing about this in her diary later.

But she had no time to think about the future, she was a girl who lived in the present. And right now, she was pissed. She had tried so hard to break up their friend group as much as possible so she could eventually overthrow Abigail as their 'leader', but the odds were against her. It wasn't enough that she made Lindsay and Luvbi want nothing to do with their group, now she still had to deal with Wendy and apparently Amethyst as well.

She let out a deep sigh, staring down at her drink. She needed more tricks up her sleeve, but she didn't have all that many. Gosh, trying to be popular was hard. Maybe she should try to be liked by actually being a good person and being friends with people?

...Nah. Abigail didn't do either of those, and she was still popular!

Hm, what did Abigail do to be popular? Boys loved her no matter what, and Mimi couldn't wrap her head around it. Was it her confidence? Looks? Hard-to-get attitude? It was a tough call. That's when a certain pink-headed Koopa caught her eye. Who better to ask than him?

She crept up quietly behind him, who was currently trying to place a fake spider on his brother Iggy's head. 'Lame, real spiders are so much better.' She thought to herself. She cleared her throat quite loudly, causing Roy to fling the spider across the room. A shriek rang out, and Mimi couldn't help but giggle a bit.

Roy turned around and saw Mimi standing there. He was surprised, she didn't really talk to him all that much. He decided to greet her anyways, what's the harm? "'Sup, Mimi?"

"We need to talk." She latched her hand on his arm and led him into a less crowded hallway before pushing him into a storage closet.

"Wha- hey! What's this all about, huh?" Roy narrowed his eyes down at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Stop trying to intimidate me, you're so lame it's kinda sad actually. But that's not what I'm here about!" She looked up at him, and he exhaled sharply, a bit annoyed.

"Okay, go on then." He leaned back, and she took a deep breath.

"What do you see in Abigail?"

He was shocked - why did Mimi of all people want to know? "Why do you of all people want to know? Are you…?"

"No! Ew, no way. I am not interested in you. I just wanted to know, is that a crime?" Mimi turned up her nose at him. Gross, she would never be interested in someone like Roy.

"Guess not. Why should I tell you though?" He didn't see why Mimi wanted to know so badly, and of course she didn't want to tell him that she wanted to overthrow Abigail as the most popular girl in their school. God, he'd think that Mimi was some kind of Heather Duke. Really, she wasn't, or so she says.

"Roy, I'm giving you a choice. Either you tell me or you can see my nasty side." She turned her head a bit, letting out a sickening crack. Roy gagged, looking away.

"Ew, god, what the hell's wrong with your head?"

"Do you really want to find out?"

"...No." Roy looked back at Mimi who was smiling at him. She looked kind of like an angel, but Roy knew better. "I guess I like Abigail because… she challenges me. I like feisty girls, plus, she's hot. What more can ya ask for?" He laughed a bit, and Mimi laughed as well, though it was clearly forced.

"'Kay, so… it's her looks and her attitude?"

"Pretty much."

"Thanks, bye!" She hurried out of the closet, giggling to herself. Okay, so all she needed to do was become 'hot' and 'feisty'. Easy enough, right?

Walking the halls was Wolfe who was super hungry, and for whatever reason they had, the Koopas had no party treats whatsoever. Really? It was Halloween, the holiday of eating sweets and of course the Koopas just didn't seem to have any. Just her luck.

Her stomach growled quite loudly, and she was thankful for the loud music. She was trying to make her way to the kitchen - if they didn't set out food, she'd just help herself to some. She entered the kitchen, shutting the double doors behind her, and nearly tripped over a figure lying on the ground. "Geez!"

She looked down and there was Iggy in a mad scientist costume, surrounded by many empty shot glasses. "Oh. That's one way to spend a night." She muttered, and he looked up at her a bit dazed.

"Oh hey, Wolfe! How are ya doin' tonight? Me, I'm doing just fine." He slurred his words together, his glasses crooked on his face. Wolfe rolled her eyes and stepped over him, making her way to the fridge.

"Yeah, I can see. God, why are you even drunk? Aren't you, oh I dunno, underaged?"

"Pfft!" Iggy laughed loudly, a bit maniacally. "Who cares?! We're Bowser's kids, you think any old police officer's gonna come to our castle like 'uhh your kids have been drinking and breaking the law'? My dad is the law!" He proudly stated, hiccuping a bit.

"I guess." She shrugged, grabbing a turkey drumstick and beginning to eat it. "Why'd you even start drinking tonight anyways? I thought you weren't this kind of guy."

Iggy frowned, like he had forgotten all about it. "Girl problems."

She laughed, lowering her eyes. "Yeah, I know how you feel." She sat down, leaning back against the fridge. "Your brother's an idiot."

"Larry?"

"Yep."

She was thinking about their recent date they'd went on. Gabby had set them up on a movie date, and it was a disaster. No, a disaster was an understatement. Wolfe didn't think it could've gone so bad, but it had. They went to go see a horror movie - Larry insisted - and Wolfe was fine with that! Really, she didn't mind horror movies at all, but Larry clearly did.

She didn't know why he'd even suggesting it, honestly. Maybe he wanted to try and show off, letting Wolfe think he was a tough guy, but it was a mistake. He was nearly crying through the whole movie, harshly gripping Wolfe's arm in fear, and then to top it all off? As soon as they left the movie theatre, he puked. All over the sidewalk.

She couldn't help but laugh a bit, thinking about it now, but at the time she was mortified. So was he, she assumed. He hadn't spoke to her since. Maybe he just wanted to forget all about that night.

"I can't forget about that night!" Larry wailed, crying in a hallway. Candy pat his arm in comfort and pity as he told her the story. His eyes were red from crying. He didn't know why he was so emotional, but he just let it all spill out of him. "A pretty girl actually wanted to go on a date with me, and what do I do? Throw up all over her! Yeah, that'll get all the girls." He muttered bitterly. "I can't even show my face around her."

"It's probably not as bad as you think." Candy offered him a smile, but he frowned instead. She sighed, looking down at her fairy costume, which was a soft blue dress with light pink subtle sparkles. She didn't expect to be spending her night like this, but she felt like she always did this at parties: comfort people. "Maybe you could ask her out on another date, as a do-over?"

Larry bunched up his eyebrows at her suggestion. "Yeah and embarrass myself again? I'll pass."

"You can't be so hard on yourself." She didn't really know what else to say to him - she felt bad though, he was being really tough on himself. "Give yourself another chance, and I'm sure Wolfe will too. Yeah she's a little scary, but I know deep down she's really nice. I know she'll forgive you."

The blue-haired koopa looked at the ground before him, thinking it over. Yeah, maybe Candy was right. He knew Wolfe wouldn't hate him for throwing up from fear like a coward - it was embarrassing, but she couldn't possibly hate him. Right?

He stood up, brushing off his pants. "Thanks Candy. I'll go try to talk to her about it, and uh, maybe you should talk to Iggy a bit?" She blushed, and watched Larry walk away. No, she didn't want to burden herself with boy troubles. She was here to have a good time with her close friend, Cheryl. Wait, where was Cheryl anyways?

"And I was like uhhh I know it was you Mimi but she was all like 'oh no I swear I'm an innocent little angel' like I was stupid or something!" Wendy complained, brushing a dark purple brush through Cheryl's black hair as the latter listened to her. She wasn't sure how she got into this position, she just remembers looking for someone to talk to and Wendy came up to her, immediately starting to rant to her. Next thing she knows, Wendy's french-braiding her hair and talking about all the latest gossip. Cheryl was shocked to hear about this, she thought her issues were awful - and they are - but Mimi set a fire to Wendy's house all to frame someone? Geez.

Wendy continued on, "And now whenever she sees me she just gives me the nastiest stare as if I'm to blame for whatever's wrong with her. Like, it's not my fault that she tried to burn down my entire house and that she got caught for it!" Cheryl nodded out of politeness, not quite knowing what to say.

Wendy tried to go on but as she did there was sudden yelling from just outside Wendy's room. Said girl groaned loudly, stomping over to her door. She opened it and narrowed her eyes. "Ludwig, can you shut up?! I'm trying to rant about my issues here and I can't hear anything over whatever disagreement you losers are having right now."

Cheryl walked over to the door and peeked her head out. Ludwig was covered in bright purple slime, and nearby were Dimento and Norman who were trying not to laugh at him. Ludwig turned to Wendy and scowled. "Well excuse me Princess, but the world doesn't revolve around you. So get off your high horse before I push you off."

"Uh!" Wendy scoffed, joining them in the hallway. "How dare you talk to me like that! I'll push you down these stairs, how'd you like that?!"

"Ah ha ha," Dimentio couldn't help but laugh at the two, but to them it seemed condescending. "How lovely, two siblings doing what they do best: bickering."

"Oh shut up." Ludwig growled, turning to Dimentio and Norman again. "I swear, you two better explain why you did this," He gestured to the slime coating his body. "Or I will press charges."

Norman chuckled a bit nervously. "Oh c'mon! It's just a prank, it's Halloween! This is the night for pranks- ow!" He was cut off by Dimentio roughly nudging him in the side.

"No no, Ludwig's right. We deeply apologize, and we'll get going. Ciao!" Dimentio grabbed Norman's arm and dragged him downstairs, away from the other three. Norman was a bit confused, and slightly upset that Dimentio elbowed him so harshly.

"Dude, what was up with that?" Norman questioned, and Dimentio turned around with a slight glint in his eyes. "Uh… what the hell..?"

"Norman, we can't let Ludwig boss us around like that, now can we?"

"...I guess not?" Norman answered it like a question, still confused. "What are you implying?"

Dimentio chuckled again, this time it left chills running up his spine. "Come to my house and we'll discuss it there. Believe me, it'll be another prank. Ludwig will regret speaking to us like we're less than him."

Norman had to admit, he didn't like Ludwig. Hell, he didn't like many of the Koopas. But he had a bad feeling about what Dimentio had in mind. He didn't jump to conclusions yet though.

Right around the corner, Electra was wondering as well what Dimentio was up to, having heard that part of the conversation. She never trusted the jester, but she hated Ludwig. He was always so full of himself, acting as if he was so intelligent and talented. Pfft. If Dimentio and Norman were going to get revenge on him…

"Hey!" She jumped out from the corner right in front of them, and Norman yelped. "I want in." She smirked at them. Dimentio, from under his mask, smirked back.

"Follow me."

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this slightly ominous chapter! Even though some characters seem a bit suspicious I can assure you that none of the characters anyone has submitted are evil - others though? Can't say. And have the Koopas made too many enemies than they can handle? What will their enemies do? Stay tuned to find out! Thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 9: The Play

**A/N: Welcome back! Okay everyone, I have a major announcement to make: this story will be coming to a close soon.**

 **Yes, that's right, I'm hoping to wrap up this story around chapter 12 (or 13). I'm hoping to end it around the end of December. You may be thinking '** _ **Oh no! It's ending so soon?**_ ' **or '** _ **Well, it was bound to happen sometime.**_ ' **or even '** _ **Thank god this fic is ending!**_ ' **(and I won't hold it against you if you're thinking the last one). This fic, however, is** _ **not**_ **ending due to me not wanting to continue writing it. I've had a blast writing this story and interacting with all of you. The reason I'm ending it is because I don't want this story to drag out for so long.**

 **That may sound vague, but the plots are coming to their own ends (though it may not seem like it). However, I don't want to stop this series altogether. That is why hopefully on January 1st, I will write and post the beginning of a sequel to this story! Yeah, you read that right: I'm making a sequel to a sequel. I guess it's a trilogy..?**

 **It's a surprise as to what it'll be about plot-wise, but until then I'll just say this: If you would like, I will continue writing all of your characters into these stories, you will just have to give me the 'OK'. All I can say is it'll be going in between the two rival high schools - the current one in Darklands (also please let me know if I gave this highschool an official name because I cannot remember for the life of me), and Mush High. If you would** _ **not**_ **like me to keep writing your character, please let me know. Even if you don't, I will stop writing them because I do not want to keep writing about someone's character who doesn't even read the stories.**

 **I will also say that you can add new characters if you would like! I'll be accepting 7 characters to be in Mush High - they can be submitted from anyone, whether you already have a character in this story or not.**

 _ **Do not submit any yet - I want it to be fair game for any new readers. You can submit them as soon as I upload the next fanfiction which will hopefully be on January 1st.**_

 **These characters will be in the Mushroom Kingdom's high school, so maybe try to make them Toads or Humans or even Koopa Troopa's! However you can still have them be regular Koopa's like the Koopalings if you wish or even a different species, that's completely up to you.**

 **Sorry for the long announcement everyone, I just thought you should all know so it wouldn't be a shock to any of you once the final chapter goes up. With all of that said, there will still be two new characters coming to this fanfiction so don't stress about this story ending too soon: I'm not going to rush the character development of these two.**

 **One more announcement (sorry, I know, this note is already super long): Please please please submit what you want to see in this story! Some things are set in stone (in my head at least) but please vote on who you want to see get together. For example: Should Larry date Wolfe or Electra? Should Iggy date Candy or Cheryl? Do you want to see any two characters in specific interact? Any suggestions at all are appreciated! Okay, thanks for reading, let's get on with the story.**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters belong to Nintendo. All other characters belong to their respective owners. The plot of** _ **Romeo and Juliet**_ **and all characters belong to William Shakespeare. All dialogue from the play is in italics, it is a direct quote - I do not own these quotes, they belong to Shakespeare. I only own Lindsay, Abigail, and the regular story.**

Tonight was the night; the night of the school play. The entire school was gathered in the auditorium for the seeing of the play. Currently it was seven o'clock in the evening and it seemed as though the entire school and their families were gathered to watch the school's reboot of _Romeo and Juliet_.

Madame Flurrie was running wild backstage. She was literally shoving people to get their costumes on, their makeup on, anything and everything. The students were slightly scared of her. She was determined to make this an exceptional play, though everyone else doubted that.

Luvbi sat on a wooden stool in front of a mirror, right next to Larry: the two leads, Romeo and Juliet. Larry glanced over at her, a sarcastic smirk on his face. "You better put on loads of chapstick Luvbi if you want me to kiss you."

The nimbi gagged, "Ha! As if. Thou art not _my_ Romeo, this is just acting. Hmph, I should not put on any chapstick just for that comment." She returned to doing her makeup and Larry rolled his sky-blue eyes.

"Sucks Morton didn't get the role of Romeo, huh?"

"What?!"

Passing them by were Gabby and Amethyst, going over their few lines. Gabby sighed, sweating in her costume. "Is there even any significance in our roles?"

Amethyst shrugged, leaving her script on a nearby table. "Who cares? The fewer lines the better. Plus I think we're one of the few characters who survive, so that's a bonus, right?"

"Guess so."

"Places!" Madame Flurrie shrieked, causing everyone backstage to jump. "We're starting Act 1, Scene 1 in just one moment! I'll be reading the prologue in three minutes so everyone - places!" She ran by them, out of breath. The cast groaned, but got to their places.

The lights dimmed in the auditorium, and the crowd hushed. Behind the curtains, Madame Flurrie spoke through a microphone:

" _Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love and the continuance of their parents' rage, which, but their children's end, naught could remove, is now the two hours' traffic of our stage— the which, if you with patient ears attend, what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend._ "

Everyone clapped, and the curtains rose to reveal Gabby and Amethyst playing the roles of Gregory and Sampson respectively. They both carried swords and small shields. Amethyst spoke, a bit uncertain of her line, " _Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals._ "

Gabby turned to Amethyst with a joking smile. " _No, for then we should be colliers_."

Amethyst sighed. " _I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw._ "

" _Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar_."

The two continued the short conversation, talking about despising the Montagues since they were servants to the Capulets. Gabby spoke her lines with certainty after going over them so many times, but Amethyst fumbled a bit. Eventually, a new character came onto the scene - Dimentio playing Abram, a servant of the Montagues.

The three quarrelled during the scene until Morton, playing Benvolio, stepped onto the scene and tried to break up the fight until O'Chunks, playing Tybalt, also came into the scene and encouraged the fight. Benvolio was a relative to the Montagues, and Tybalt was a relative to the Capulets, so obviously the two clashed.

Eventually, arriving to the scene came the heads of the two clashing families. Lemmy played Capulet, Wolfe played Lady Capulet, Ludwig played Montague, and Electra played Lady Montague. The families clashed on the public streets, and surprisingly the scene went quite well, though some students were bored. Squirps, playing Prince Escalus, eventually broke up the fight and told the families that if they were to fight again they would be dead.

All that remained were Benvolio, Montague and Lady Montague. They discussed where Romeo was, and how he had been sad lately. Eventually, Larry - Romeo - entered and the audience cheered a bit for him. Romeo and Benvolio began talking about how heartbroken Romeo was. Larry was doing a well job of acting as him, and the students in the audience began feeling a bit sad for him, thus ending the scene.

The audience clapped, but some were already very bored. The students weren't exceptional actors, and _Romeo and Juliet_ was not an original play. Quite the opposite - some considered it the most popular play known. They could only wait for the twist ending.

Eventually, Act 1 Scene 5 came around, the scene where things got exciting. It was Capulet's party, and of course some Montagues snuck in - Romeo, mainly. It was the scene where Romeo met Juliet. Larry and Luvbi were both dreading this. Halfway through the scene, it was time for Larry to ask about Luvbi.

" _What lady is that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?_ " He asked a nearby servingman, only for him not to know. Larry had to pretend he was in love with Luvbi's beauty, who was looking pretty smug at this moment. Larry held back the urge to vomit - something he had been doing a lot lately to his disgust.

A few minutes later, even more disgusting, he had to compliment her and - wait for it - hold her hand. Gross. What's next was even grosser. " _...Let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair._ "

Luvbi had the urge to roll her eyes. Even in character, he was annoying. " _Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake._ "

" _Then move not…_ " Larry gulped, finishing his sentence. " _While my prayer's effect I take_."

He shut his eyes close tightly and leaned in. Luvbi shut her eyes as well, trying to imagine it was anyone else than him, but it was too hard. To both of their relief, Larry completely missed her lips, and ended up kissing the side of her mouth.

Some people watching them were very disappointed - not that he missed the kiss, but the fact that they were about to do it again. Wolfe and Electra couldn't watch it. The leads muttered a few lines and leaned in once more, this time actually kissing, causing the audience to cheer.

" _Madam,_ " Lindsay cut in, and the girls were thankful for that. " _Your mother craves a word with you._ "

Luvbi exited, and tried to ignore the glares from two girls. It's not like she even wanted to kiss him, he was gross, she deserved the best of guys! Not some guy like Larry who didn't even know how to kiss. Though, she guessed it was for the best.

The scene wrapped up, which also wrapped up the first act of the play. The audience cheered, but still bored. Everyone was hoping the play would go over quickly. Nobody really wanted to see those two kiss again: that was lame and awkward in everyone's opinions.

Sooner than everyone hoped, the dreadful Act 2 Scene 2 came up.

The famous balcony scene.

Luvbi appeared on the balcony, saying the most well-known line from the play. " _O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?_ " This caused the audience to cheer, even though it wasn't even half of her line. Luvbi faltered, and Larry snickered at her. She narrowed her eyes at him. Why did _he_ have to play her love interest?

Wolfe and Electra were wondering the exact same thing. They stood next to each other backstage, watching the scene play out. Electra scowled. "I know we don't exactly get along, but I'd honestly be happier with you playing Juliet than Luvbi. She doesn't even appreciate this role! At least _we'd_ appreciate this."

Wolfe nodded, her silver hair bouncing a bit. "I agree with you for once. She doesn't deserve this role, but what can you do? All we can do is what we're doing now, watching from the sidelines."

Electra grinned, looking over at Wolfe with her sparkling hazel eyes. "Not necessarily." Wolfe grinned back at her and they walked away, whispering to each other.

Watching them was Morton, who was also sad but not as upset as those two. He did agree - he didn't think either Luvbi or Larry should've been Juliet and Romeo. Or, at least, he didn't think Larry should've played Romeo. Those two didn't have any chemistry, and that's what he thought the stars should have. It pained him to see the two kiss, but he didn't know if it was because of his head or his heart.

The scenes dragged on, eventually coming to Act 2 Scene 4. Right now Larry, Morton, and Norman, playing Mercution, were having a conversation that was strictly made up of sexual jokes. They prayed no one could understand what the hell they were saying. Breaking up the discussion was Lindsay, playing the Nurse.

She greeted them, and they greeted her as well until she asked where to find Romeo. Larry speaks up until Morton cuts her off, making fun of her line. He and Norman begin poking fun at her, and though Lindsay knows it's only the role, she still feels a bit hurt. Her confidence wasn't very high these days, not after everything that happened with Abigail, so she was a bit off for the rest of the scene.

Abigail herself was watching in the crowd, and all she wanted to do at that moment was to jump up onto the stage herself and scream at them to stop it. She knew she should've done that at the party so long ago. But she didn't. And Lindsay couldn't forgive her for that.

Believe her, she tried apologising many times. Over text, calls, face-to-face, whatever. She tried a few times but everytime Lindsay would just ask her 'are you really? Or are you just saying that because you need someone to talk to at this minute?'. She'd always say no, it was because she really missed Lindsay, only for her to not believe her.

She couldn't blame Lindsay. She'd be hurt too if she was in her place. She was determined though - if Amethyst could forgive her, so could Lindsay.

Abigail quietly crawled out of her seat and scanned the crowd, looking for a certain pink-headed Koopa. She figured she needed his help if she wanted to get her best friend back.

Hiding behind a pillar near his seat she whispered, "Psst! Roy!". A few people turned around to give her dirty looks, but of course not Roy himself. She rolled her eyes and tried again, only to have some cranky old man shush her. She knew what she needed to do.

With a loud thump, Abigail's boot hit the back of Roy's head. "Yowch!" He flew out of his seat and turned around wildly, looking for the culprit. "Alright, who 'da hell jus' threw 'dat?!" His brooklyn accent was coming through more than usual and Abigail knew he was pissed off.

"Roy!" She waved her hand a bit and he sighed. Making his way out of the aisle, he finally got to Abigail and brought her back her boot.

"I should'a known it was you."

She smirked and put her boot on. "I need your help."

The two made their way into the hall and Abigail sighed. "Look, I know we're not on good terms-"

"So you're apologising?"

"Grambi, no!" She tried not to laugh - what did she have to be sorry for, at least regarding him? "I need you to find Lindsay after the play's over and trap her in a closet, the janitor's closet in the east side of the school. Just wait there until I get there so I can talk to her - then, she'll have to listen to me! It's foolproof, right?"

He blinked before taking a deep breath. "Abigail, you've never had a worse plan."

She lightly slapped his arm, a frown on her face. "Shut up! It'll work, I just need you to cooperate."

"And what do I get out of this?" He crossed his arms and leaned against the nearest wall, watching Abigail think.

"...I'll give you a chance," She looked up at him and he raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to go on. "That is, if you still like me. I'll give us a chance."

He couldn't help the grin that spread on his face. "Seriously? You promise, Abby?" He teased and she sighed with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now wait for the play to end and get Lindsay."

The acts and scenes seemed to fly by until the very last act and the very last scene: Act 5, Scene 3. The zombie scene.

It started off with Larry battling Vivian - who was playing Paris - because they both loved Juliet. In the end, Paris died and Romeo was victorious until he arrived at his lover's dead body. He was so upset - or at least, Larry tried to be - over the fact that his poor Juliet was gone. He pulled out his poison so he could die alongside his wife, until Juliet began to stir.

"Hnng…" Luvbi groaned, resembling a zombie. She rose up from her casket and revealed a horrid mask - it wasn't terrifying in the way they wanted. It was a cheap mask that truthfully didn't even look like a zombie.

Madame Flurrie looked to the crowd, hoping for some shock, but instead the crowd burst out laughing. The students were all very immature, and began poking fun at Luvbi's mask. Some even took pictures.

Luvbi noticed and couldn't even speak her lines over all the laughter. After a good two minutes, she shrieked in frustration. "That is it!" She stood up and stood to face the audience. "I hath had it with thee, and with this stupid play! I had to kiss _him,_ " Luvbi snarled and pointed to Larry who was snickering. "And put on this _hideous_ mask all for what, hm?! To get laughed at! None of thee would know good acting if it were to smacketh thee in the face!"

She reached up to throw off her mask, but it wouldn't come off. She tugged harder to the point of it hurting her, and she cried out. Larry rushed over to help her and she batted him away.

Madame Flurrie ran onto the stage, horrified at how her play was going. "Close the curtains- close them!" She cried out and the curtains frantically swung shut. No applause was heard from the audience. She sighed in despair, walking off to sulk in the corner.

Luvbi was still struggling to get the mask off of her face and some people came to her help: Morton, Lindsay, Norman. No matter how hard they tried, the zombie mask wouldn't come off of her face.

"Gee Luvbi, it's really stuck on there." Lindsay frowned while giving it another tug.

"Yeah, I am aware!" Luvbi hissed, before backing up from all of them. She turned around to look at her fellow castmates. "So? Which one of thee art behind this? Hm?"

They all looked at each other in uncertainty. Nobody really knew who had been the one to glue Luvbi's mask, so of course the nimbi started accusing people. "Gabby? Was it you?"

"Wha-?!" Gabby gasped, her eyebrows scrunching up in confusion. "No! God why would I do that?"

"Oh, I do not know, perhaps thou art jealous that I'm such good friends with Morton? Dost thou like him? Huh?!"

"No!" Gabby shook her head, her face reddening even though she truly didn't feel jealous of Luvbi. "I'm only friends with Morton I would never see him that way… no offense dude."

"None taken." Morton shrugged.

"Pft!" Luvbi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Fine! Then was it perhaps Electra and Wolfe? I know thee art both jealous of me getting to kiss your precious 'Romeo'." She gagged as she said this.

Wolfe scoffed in disbelief, shaking her head. "Luvbi, _no._ We didn't do that."

"Oh really?" Ludwig asked from the back of the group. "Because I seem to remember you two talking about pulling a prank on Luvbi."

The girls looked at each other in fear, and a bit of anger. "Uh, no," Electra started. "You're wrong. We wouldn't do anything to her!"

The crowd just stared them down until Wolfe sighed in defeat. "Fine, fine! We were planning to prank her but we didn't glue her mask." She pointed to a bucket hidden above the stage. "That's filled with slime. We were going to drop it on her at the very end but we didn't quite get to that point."

Luvbi was seeing red at this point and a few of the others had to hold her back as she cursed wildly at the two girls. Eventually though, she managed to calm down.

"So…" Larry looked around the room suspiciously. "So who was it?" He was a bit annoyed - he really felt sorry for Luvbi. Yeah she was annoying, but now she had some awful mask stuck to her face, and someone in this room must have done it.

"I think I know." A new voice spoke up and everyone nearly jumped out of their skin. They turned around to see a new kid - a koopa. He had a black mohawk and a red shell. Everyone was confused as to who he was.

"Who are you?" Morton asked for all of them.

The new guy chuckled a bit, leaning against a wall. "Call me William. As for who did that…" He pointed once again at Luvbi. "I saw some female koopa do it… she had a huge pink bow on her head and was wearing a buncha gold jewelry."

Luvbi narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Wendy?! Ugh! That maketh sense… she's mad at me for not wanting to listen to her blabbering about her issues."

"Whoa whoa whoa, Wendy wouldn't do that!" Lemmy piped up, waving his hands around. "She may be a brat but she wouldn't do that." He looked at the new guy, William, in disbelief.

Luvbi ignored him and stormed out of the room, muttering about how dumb the Koopalings all seemed to be. She didn't notice Morton's hurt expression.

She darted into the hallway and noticed Wendy about to leave from watching the play. "Wendy!" She called out and said koopa turned around. Wendy began giggling and pointed a finger at her mask.

"Oh my grambi, Luvbi you're still wearing the horrid thing? C'mon, Halloween was last month." She began laughing even harder and Luvbi's blood boiled. She shoved Wendy back harshly.

"Do _not_ even start with me, Wendy. I know thee were the one to do this!" Luvbi hissed, her normally white face growing red with anger.

"What?!" Wendy shrieked in disbelief. "Why would _I_ want to make your face even uglier than it already is?" She stared Luvbi down and soon enough, a crowd began to gather.

In a matter of moments, a classic cat-fight broke out between the two girls. It wasn't a fist fight like Amethyst and Abigail's a few months ago. No, these two were just scratching and throwing insults and occasionally slapping the other.

"Stop it!" Lindsay cried out, trying to make her way through the crowd. "Stop, you guys used to be friends! Stop fighting, dammit!" She stood in between Wendy and Luvbi who were both not amused with her.

"Lindsay, sweetie," Wendy threw her bracelets onto the ground. "Why don't you go run off and cry again, okay? Clearly fights are not your expertise." She laughed a bit as she said this and Lindsay felt the same feeling in her chest again. She felt overwhelmed, everyone was watching once again as someone made fun of her. All she wanted was for people to stop fighting.

Luvbi laughed a bit as well, joining in. "I agree, Lindsay thou art not made for fighting. Perhaps thou was made for running away and acting like a child?"

" _Hey._ " A voice came from behind Lindsay and she jumped, her heart pounding. She turned around only to come face-to-face with Roy Koopa. Great. "Come with me Lindsay, we gotta go."

"Wha-?" She began to ask him only to have him grab her arm and lead her away. "Hey- wait!" She struggled but one glance from him made her stop. She could only wonder where the hell this jerk was leading her.

They stopped suddenly, and she looked around in confusion. A closet? "Um..?"

He opened the door and, quite roughly, shoved her inside. He shut the door behind her as she hit the ground. She squealed in surprise and from pain, since she landed on her right arm. "Ow!" Quickly she got to her feet and rushed to the door. "Let me out!" She pounded on the door with all her might which really wasn't very much. "I have a curfew you know!"

After five minutes he still was not giving up. She sighed in defeat and sat on the floor. Lindsay didn't even have her phone with her since she was still dressed up in her costume and her costume did not have a single pocket.

Suddenly the door swung open and in walked none other than Abigail, looking fairly smug. Lindsay rushed up with her arms out. Abigail opened her arms in response, thinking she was going in for a hug, only to have Lindsay rush past her and try to get to the door. Roy shut it once more. "Damn it!"

Lindsay turned around to face the tall girl and frowned. "Abigail what the hell is going on?"

Abigail sighed in frustration. "I needed to lock you in here so you can hear me out. And you're not going home until we're friends again."

The brunette scoffed in disbelief. "Abigail that's _insane_! Let me out, now!" She crossed her arms but Abigail only shook her head.

"Lindsay listen to me. I've missed you so much and it's sad that this is the only way for you to hear me out. Even Amethyst forgave me for my stupid actions, and you can't?"

"Amethyst wasn't your best friend for years!" Lindsay cried out, pulling on her hair in stress. "You don't _get it_ , Abigail. You were my best friend, the person I could always go to when someone was picking on me and vice versa. You know how bad I am at standing up for myself but how I always try to be there for you. And the night of that party when I was almost crying, all you did was watch your stupid boyfriend throwing insults at me left and right! So yeah, thanks for that."

"For grambi's sake, Lindsay, let it go! How many times do I have to say that I'm sorry?!" Abigail shouted, causing Lindsay to flinch. She either didn't notice or didn't care. "I'm sorry that I was so upset that night that I didn't think of standing up to a guy who made me so jealous that I lashed out and physically hurt someone that I didn't even know. I regret it, I really do, but I can't go back and change that night."

She paused and noticed Lindsay crying, her hair falling in front of her face. She sobbed and took a deep breath. "I know, I was just being super over dramatic… it just really hurt. I didn't even think how hurt you were that night I just… I felt like my best friend didn't care about me anymore, just like the rest of them."

"Linds, no!" Abigail rushed to her side and gave her a hug. "You're my best friend, Lindsay. No matter what. I'm really sorry."

Lindsay cried again and hugged Abigail back. "I missed you too Abby, I'm sorry too!" She cried even louder into Abigail's shoulder, and from the other side of the door Roy smiled. How touching.

He opened the door for them and they walked out. Lindsay waved them goodbye with a small smile on her face as she made her way home, as it was now almost eleven o'clock. Abigail watched her go before turning to face Roy with a grin. "It worked! I knew it, it was insane and it totally worked, we're besties again."

"Besties." Roy repeated and chuckled. "Ahem, I believe you promised something if I helped you out here?"

She stared at him in confusion for a moment before realization hit her. "Right. Duh. Fine, we can go on a date. Pick me up Saturday at 7?" She gave him a smirk and he genuinely smiled.

"Sounds good. See ya, Abby."

She rolled her eyes and walked away, finally ready to go home.

"Psst!"

She stopped in her tracks. Looking around, she saw Dimentio hiding behind a corner. "What?" He waved her over and she sighed before walking over. "What do you want?"

He handed her a piece of paper folded up. "Take this home. Don't open it until you get home, and make sure you do what it says. Got it?"

She was about to protest until he teleported away and she grumbled to herself. Wait until she got home, yeah, right. She roughly unfolded the paper and it revealed some kind of invitation. ' _Super secret meeting -_ _ **no koopalings allowed.**_ _Be there or pay the consequences. Tomorrow at lunch, in the tech hall. Don't be late._ '

Chills ran up her spine, but she brushed them off. She couldn't, however, shake off the sinking feeling in her stomach. Why was this note so ominous? Who would be there? Clearly not the Koopalings. Why not?

She threw the note in a nearby trash bin. Maybe she'd go, maybe she wouldn't. One thing was for sure, this meeting wasn't going to be all friendly and happy. Something was happening, something big. She just didn't know what. It was Thursday, she just needed to survive tomorrow and then relax on the weekend. Sounded simple enough.

 **A/N: Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoyed - please leave a review on what you think and please, if you haven't already, read my note at the start of this chapter. Thanks!**


	11. Chapter 10: School Spirit

**A/N: Welcome back to another chapter everyone! Thank you all for your reviews and suggestions once more - I know, I know, I say this every chapter but it's all true! Reviews make my whole day, they mean a lot to me.**

 **Speaking of reviews, this will be the last chapter that people will be able to leave suggestions on who should end up with who! The next chapter will set some things in stone and then there's no going back. If it's a tie between characters (ex. If two people say Larry should end up with Electra and another two say he should end up with Wolfe) then I'll have to choose which option I think would be better for the story. Just a heads up, so get those suggestions in! Thanks for reading, let's get on with the story shall we?**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters belong to Nintendo. All other characters belong to their respective owners. I only own Lindsay, Abigail, and the regular story.**

Friday, the day everyone looks forward to during the week. Usually fridays don't have much going on since it's right before the weekend. Most students don't even care about their classes if there _is_ something going on since they're so excited.

Now? All some kids could stress about was the ominous invitation they received the previous day.

Some kids got it in the mail, some got it in person. Some even had it in their lockers. One thing that each person who received an invitation was thinking was something along the lines of 'what the hell?'.

The select few tried not to stress over it but it was just so… mysterious. They couldn't do much else except think about it until lunch.

Currently, the day had just begun and the English class were bored out of their minds. The bell had just rang for class and everyone was still only settling in but as soon as their teacher, Ms. Nastasia, spoke in her monotone voice? They felt like they could fall asleep right away.

"'K, class, I have an announcement." Ms. Nastasia said, leaning back in her chair. "We have a new student today. Please welcome Mr. Mark."

A boomerang bro strolled into the classroom with a small smile on his face, scanning his new classmates. He looked like a regular guy, but he caught the eye of a certain Koopaling.

"Whoa." Lemmy muttered, and Iggy glanced at him out of curiosity.

"You know this guy?" Iggy asked and Lemmy shook his head.

"I wish I did, I mean look at him!"

Iggy looked at Mark and then back at Lemmy. It took him a second but he finally understood what his closest brother meant. "Oh… dude, you got this. If you need any relationship advice, come to me." He smiled until he noticed Lemmy's ' _really?_ ' expression and remembered his current relationship status. "Actually... maybe you should ask someone else."

Lemmy looked back at Mark and the two stared at each other. Lemmy gave him a grin and Mark looked away, but Lemmy could've sworn his cheeks were slightly red.

"O….kay." Ms. Nastasia watched them and then shook her head. "Right. Uh. On with the lesson."

The class awkwardly got to work on some boring english stuff but most people - once again - could not concentrate and were just counting down the minutes until lunch; until the meeting.

The bell blared through the school after a few hours, signalling the start of lunch. Everyone raced out of their classrooms as usual, a few kids though were a little more frantic as they rushed to tech hall.

Everyone was now gathered right outside a computer lab. There were quite a few people: Dimentio, Electra, Abigail, William, Wolfe, Mark, Candy, Lindsay, Gabby, Doopliss, Cheryl, Amethyst, Norman, and Luvbi.

Mimi opened the door for them from the inside and invited them in. Inside the room were quite a few chairs placed in a circle. They all took their seats quietly, but many people were unsure about what was happening.

"What the hell's this all about?" Gabby asked with a frown on her face and her arms crossed. She didn't like meetings, especially not ones she was forced to go to. Amethyst nodded in agreement next to her.

"Ahem!" Mimi cleared her throat and dusted off her dress. "We've gathered here today to discuss a certain troublesome family, one that has caused mayhem-"

"'We've gathered here today'? What is this, a wedding?" Abigail laughed loudly and William, seated next to her, joined in. Mimi gave her an evil stare and continued on.

"One that has caused mayhem for all of us here. The Koopalings."

"What?" Candy asked, speaking up. "They haven't been any trouble!"

Most of the students agreed, making the room erupt in noise. Mimi sighed in frustration before waving her hands around, causing them to settle down. "Candy, we all know that's a load of crap. I mean _come on_! Ever since those dummies got here, the whole place has went to shit!"

"Mimi!" Doopliss scolded her.

"You get my point."

"No, we really don't," Amethyst complained loudly. "Is this whole meeting just about you not trusting the Koopalings? Awh, poor Mimi. Who was it who tried burning down their house?"

The room exploded in noise once more and it took longer to get everyone to quiet down this time. Dimentio was the one to finally do it. "Ah ha ha, now everyone I know we all have our disagreements. But one thing is for sure, which family has been involved in our disagreements?"

"What kind of disagreements?" Wolfe asked curiously, slightly tilting her head.

"Hm, let's see…" Dimentio looked around the room with his shifty mismatched eyes. "Wolfe and Electra have issues with the other, Candy and Cheryl do as well but they just hide it, Abigail and Lindsay were feuding were quite some time and only recently made up, Gabby and Doopliss are feuding as well, and oh! Abigail and Amethyst had quite the brawl, wouldn't you say?" He glanced at the two girls who looked like they wanted to slap him across the face. "There's more… shall I go on?"

"Um, yeah, hi?" Mark sheepishly raised a hand. "I have nothing to do with this, the Koopalings seem chill to me, can I go now?"

"No!" Mimi snapped at him. "We need reinforcements."

" _Reinforcements?_ " William retorted. "You're joking, right? Jeez, they're just a family. You guys need to chill and just relax."

"They're not just a family." Mimi narrowed her emerald green eyes at him. "Listen newbie, you don't know what you're talking about,"

"But _I_ do!" Lindsay frowned at her. "This is ridiculous, the Koopalings are not the awful monsters you're making them out to be."

"Awh, but Lindsay," Doopliss started with his crooked grin. "Didn't Roy have some nasty things to say to you oh-so-long ago? And just yesterday, wasn't Wendy doing the exact same thing?"

"Maybe so," Lindsay looked away, close to backing down. "But that was only two of them. There's seven altogether and you're just grouping them together. They're not all like that."

"Yeah, and they're not the cause of all those problems you just listed!" Norman pitched in. He didn't necessarily like the Koopalings, but he had a feeling they were taking it too far. He had to agree with what William and Lindsay said.

Dimentio's eyes seemed to darken just a bit. "Candy and Cheryl, two good friends, are now having tension build up between them because they're stuck in a love triangle with Iggy who can't even let one of them down easily. No, he's selfish and is now avoiding them, making things worse for the girls. Isn't that right?" He turned to face them who looked sad at the mention of Iggy.

He continued. "And Wolfe and Electra? Never had an issue before Larry came along. Now he's playing both of them - taking one to homecoming, taking the other one on a date. Just like his brother - selfish. Who knows when those two girls will brawl?" Wolfe and Electra both looked like they wanted to say something, but chose to stay silent.

"And Roy? Don't even get me started on him. He made two girls physically fight each other because that's how much of a conceited guy he is - he just liked seeing girls fight over him and didn't care to comfort either of them afterwards. He plays girls, he doesn't care about their feelings! Isn't that right, ladies?" Dimentio's voice was getting a bit louder now and, to be honest, was scaring most of the people in the room.

"Wendy's an inconsiderate brat," He looked over at Luvbi. "She glued a mask to your face because you didn't want to listen to her whine and while all day," He then turned to face Lindsay. "And she practically replaced you in your friendship group to the point of you crying on the sidewalk with two other pathetic people."

"Hey-!" Norman tried to cut in, partially because Dimentio called him pathetic, partially because he didn't want Lindsay to be reminded of that, and partially because he didn't know how Dimentio knew about that.

"All of these things are facts, people." Dimentio growled. "Our school was peaceful before _they_ came along. You can't deny that."

"Now?" Mimi spoke up again, a creepy undertone in her voice. "Our school is as dysfunctional as Mush High. And that's saying something. Does anyone object?"

"I agree, to a point." Electra stood up out of her seat. "The Koopa family isn't the best… Larry's an exception. Ludwig's the worst out of them… he's so conceited just because he's the heir to the throne."

"No he isn't!" Lindsay stood up as well, enraged. "Ludwig may be anti-social, and a bit stuck-up… but he's not awful. You have no idea what you're talking about Electra, he's a good friend." She clenched her fists in anger, that's one thing she was passionate about: defending her friends.

"Awhhh," Mimi cooed sarcastically. "Does little Lindsay have a little crush on Ludwig?"

Lindsay's cheeks went red in embarrassment. "No! Geez I'm just sticking up for a friend. Besides, he likes Vivian I'm fairly sure..." She frowned a bit as she said this which caused Mimi to cackle.

"Hah! Awh you _so_ like him, you're so jealous of Vivian."

Lindsay sighed and sat back down, thinking of Ludwig and Vivian dancing together at homecoming. "Yeah… jealous of Vivian."

Mimi smirked and looked around. "To our main point: the Koopalings are not good people, so we're going to get rid of them."

Cheryl's eyes widened and she whispered out, "You're… you're going to _murder_ them?"

"What? No!" Mimi batted her hand as if she was shooing off flies. "Geez. We're just thinking about how nice it would be if they would get expelled."

"Expelled? You're serious?" Gabby spoke up in disbelief. "Yeah, uh, you realise that the school is run by Kammy Koopa… Bowser's assistant. She literally works for their family, she wouldn't expel them."

"Hm, you're right, that sure is a pickle." Doopliss sarcastically said. "Unless she would."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion until Gabby finally realised what he meant. "You're not thinking of what I'm thinking of… right?"

"What're you thinking of?"

"Take a wild guess, Doopliss." She narrowed her eyes at him and he smirked.

"Oh, I'm thinking of what you're thinking of."

"Damn it!" Gabby threw her arms up in disbelief. "You're insane, that's never going to work!"

"Uh, yeah it will Abby!" Mimi crossed her arms. "Or was it Gabby..? Golly, I can never remember."

"I'm out of here." Gabby stood up and headed for the door. "Anyone who thinks this plan is absolutely _ridiculous_ can follow me. And for the record, it's Gabby." Without any hesitation some people followed her: Amethyst, William, Mark, Lindsay. The rest of them stayed though, some were interested in their plan and some had no clue what it was.

"Umm…" Candy anxiously held the hem of her dress in her hand. "What's your plan, exactly?"

Electra rolled her hazel eyes at her. "We're working with two shapeshifters - what do you think?"

Candy frowned at her harsh words and tone. "I don't know, that's why I asked." The two girls glared at each other until Dimentio spoke up once more.

"Ladies, save your negative energy for dealing with our true enemies, the Koopalings."

Abigail sighed, sitting back in her seat, eyes locked on her phone as she typed on it. "So, let me get this straight: you want to impersonate Kammy and expel the Koopalings?"

"Yeah." Mimi shrugged, twirling a piece of her hair.

"'Kay…" Abigail trailed off, typing something on her phone. She finished, and stood up. "Well, I'm out. See you around, I guess." Her phone buzzed and Doopliss finally snapped.

"Abigail what're you even doing on your phone? I swear, if you told anyone about our plans-"

"Oh no, I would _never_ tell the Koopalings that people are conspiring against them!" She said with a sarcastic tone as she left the room. Everyone else followed her as well except for Mimi, Doopliss, and Dimentio.

The boys looked at Mimi, waiting for her reaction. Her face was stone cold and still, until her neck jolted and let out a loud crack. "Ew, Mimikins, gross." Doopliss gagged and Mimi glared at him.

"These dummies don't know who they're messing with. If they don't want to help us - fine! We'll get them out of here ourselves and show everyone else who's boss." She turned her head to face them and they shivered a bit at her cold glare. "Any complaints?"

They stayed silent, neither boy daring to say a word. They weren't scared of her, they just didn't want to have to deal with her true form. They knew how bratty she could be once her true self was shown. They really didn't want that to happen, not yet at least. There was a time and place for everything.

As for everyone else? They didn't know what to think. So a few people didn't like the Koopalings - big deal. They were mostly uncomfortable with the issues that they all pointed out. A certain lycan especially.

She found Larry near his locker and walked up behind him, clearing her throat. "Ahem."

He jumped around in surprise, fighting back the urge to shriek. He immediately calmed down though once he saw Wolfe's face. "Oh, hey Wolfe. What's up?" He smiled at her and she smiled back but immediately frowned again.

"Larry, I hope you know this isn't a game."

"...What?" Larry tilted his head to the side, a confused expression on his face. Wolfe tried not to think about how cute he was.

"This isn't some dating show where you can just date as many girls as you want. You realise that, right?" Her voice had an edge to it and Larry looked a little guilty.

"I… I know that, Wolfe."

"Do you?" She didn't even sound mad anymore, just hurt. "I get it if you don't like me and you like Electra… or if it's the other way around. I can deal with either one, I just, I can't deal with you playing both me and Electra! Do you have any idea about all of the tension that's built up between us right now? It sucks. This has to end, Larry."

"... _We_ have to end?" Larry had a small frown on his face. He honestly expected this to come any day now, he was just surprised that it was really happened.

"No, no! Unless you want it to. Something has to change here."

"I know." He took a deep breath and looked at her crimson eyes. His stomach fluttered a bit, but the poor boy didn't know if it was from his nerves or from how he felt towards her. "Can I… can I take a day or two to think about this? 'Cause this is like, some deep stuff to think about."

She nodded and sighed. "Yeah, just… let one of us know by Monday, okay? Take the weekend to think about it. I can't wait any longer and I don't think Electra can either." She turned to walk away and Larry quickly took her hand.

"Um, no matter what happens, we're still gonna be friends right? Because you're a super cool chick." He looked down at the floor and she chuckled.

"'Chick'?"

He laughed a bit and let go of her hand. "You know what I mean! We've made some good memories, you have to admit."

She smiled a bit and leaned against a locker. "What, like you throwing up on our date? Or perhaps spilling paint on me?"

He laughed even harder and she joined in too. He took a breath before answering, "Yeah, I guess so. Those were some pretty good times in my opinion."

She smiled but it instantly felt bittersweet. She turned to walk away again. "Yeah. Hope we can make some more."

He watched her walk away and he frowned. He felt like his heart was being pulled in two different directions, as dramatic as that sounds. He was beginning to like both of the girls - something he didn't expect. He made some memories with both of them, but he did agree with Wolfe. He couldn't let himself get feelings for both of the girls and he more importantly couldn't let both of the girls get stronger feelings for him at the same time.

He sighed and slammed his hand on his locker in stress. "Ow!" He reeled back as pain shot through his hand. "Okay, okay… not one of my smarter decisions…"

Meanwhile, Lindsay walked into the cafeteria and was immediately tackled by Lemmy. She shrieked and the two fell on the floor, Lemmy giggling and Lindsay groaning in pain. "Ow… Lemmy what was that for?"

Lemmy stood up with a huge grin on his face. "I need relationship advice!"

Lindsay immediately brightened up. "Oh my grambi really? Dude! I'm so excited! Tell me all about it." She pulled them over to a nearby empty table and crossed her hands over each other. "So… who's the lucky person?"

Lemmy blushed and looked away. "The new kid in english class…"

Lindsay smiled, "Awh! Okay, so, what do you need help with specifically?"

"How do I talk to him?"

She sighed. Lemmy was basically a relationship newbie - yeah he had crushes and stuff before but he told her that he'd never dated anyone, so he was pretty inexperienced. "Well…" She thought of what to tell him. She was a bit unsure of what to say, seeing as she didn't really know Mark that well. "I think in this situation the first thing you gotta do is be friends with him and most importantly: be yourself."

"Well duh!" Lemmy laughed and stood up. "Thanks Lindsay, I'm gonna go find him now. And if you need advice for you-know-who..." He winked at her and she blushed in embarrassment.

"No, no, I'm good. Thanks though." She looked down at the table as Lemmy walked away and just as she did, another person walked up and sat down next to her, startling her. "Ah! Oh, hey Vivian!" She smiled at her and smiled wider as Vivian smiled back.

"Hey Lindsay. Where've you been?"

"This dumb meeting… some people want the Koopalings out of this school." Lindsay lowered her voice and Vivian gasped.

"No! Why?"

"They say that they're the cause of all of our recent issues which is so dumb… and when I defended them, stupid Mimi claimed I had a crush on one of them."

Vivian frowned a bit, "Ludwig?"

Lindsay nodded. "Yeah, but, I don't like him. Not in _that_ way so don't worry about it, in case you like him." She smiled at Vivian who frowned even more.

"You think I like Ludwig?" She asked with a tilt of the head and Lindsay nodded, her curly brown hair bobbing up and down. "Well I don't. He's not my type… he's nice but he's kind of… just not my type, you know?" Vivian twirled a piece of her light pink hair around in circles.

Lindsay smiled a bit. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

As she said that, Abigail loudly set her tray of food down on the table with a heavy sigh, followed by Amethyst. "That meeting was _so dumb_." Lindsay nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of those two and her face turned a bright red.

"Jeez, a little warning would be nice." Lindsay grumbled and stole a fry from Abigail. The redhead only smiled and glanced to and from Lindsay and Vivian.

"What were you two talking about?" She asked and Lindsay could hear a slight edge in her voice… was she jealous?

"Oh, nothing." Vivian politely smiled and felt a bit awkward. "Um, Lindsay I'm gonna get going, I'll see you in drama okay?"

Lindsay smiled and waved her goodbye before noticing the stares from Abigail and Amethyst. "What?"

"Sooo…" Abigail trailed off. "You and Vivian are good friends, huh?" Amethyst wiggled her eyebrows at Lindsay who just looked at her in confusion.

"Um, yeah. She's a really good friend."

"She your best friend?" Abigail looked up at Lindsay in a bit of annoyance.

"What? No, Abby you're my best friend. It's… different with Vivian."

Amethyst snickered a bit under her breath and Abigail was the one now who looked at her in confusion. She rolled her eyes and then turned back to Lindsay. "Different how?"

Lindsay stood up suddenly and turned away. "It's just different, okay? You have nothing to worry about." She told the two before running off.

Abigail turned to Amethyst who was trying not to laugh. "What's so funny? Am I missing something here?"

Amethyst only shook her head and took a sip of her milkshake. "Abigail, it's funny how oblivious you can be sometimes."

Sooner than students expected, the bell for lunch rang out and everyone rushed off to their classes. Coach Daisy was particularly excited this Friday because she had a major announcement to make to her gym class. Everyone was gathered in the gymnasium, a bit antsy, wondering what the announcement would be about.

"So," Coach Daisy stood at the front of the bleachers, where all the students sat watching her with eager eyes. "As you all know, I'm close friends with Princess Peach who happens to be the principal of Mush High." The class remembered how Peach came into their school to lecture them on lord-knows-what; they couldn't even remember.

"Well, we arranged to have a game of sorts at the end of December - most likely, a football game." The students cheered as she announced this. "Anyone is able to sign up to participate, but I thought you guys might be interested in particular."

"What does this have to do with Peach?" Wendy mumbled, and the students around her nodded in agreement. Daisy seemed to hear this and sighed rather loudly.

"The football game will be against the school Peach rules over - Mush High."

The gymnasium was filled with students sighing and groaning in disbelief. "Really, those stuck-up pricks?" "I don't want anything to do with them!" "They're going down!"

Iggy turned to his close friend Francis in confusion. "What's wrong with Mush High?"

Francis sighed and looked around. "A lot. Mush High's a high school - duh - that's filled of students that live in the Mushroom Kingdom. Sounds normal enough, but they're so full of themselves. You'd think the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom would be polite but no," Francis muttered bitterly. "They think that we're just as bad as Bowser, no offense, and that all of us are evil."

Iggy blinked in disbelief. "Wait, really?"

"Yup. They made it clear that our two schools are rivals, and everyone's loyal to their own school. Switching between schools would be like a betrayal, no one's ever done it before."

To Iggy, this sounded like some kind of cheesy high school movie. Two schools that are rivals, one is supposedly good and the other one is evil. What a cliche.

Daisy waved her arms wildly, "Shush, all of you! Enough!" Finally everyone stopped complaining long enough to hear her out. "Look, this 'rivalry' between the schools is ridiculous - we're having a football game whether you like it or not."

"Doesn't mean any of _us_ have to participate!" Some random guy called out.

"Hm, that's true…" The redhead muttered in fake thought. "Okay, then anyone who doesn't at least show up to the game whether you participate or not, will have their mark dropped by 30 percent."

Silence. The students were silenced in disbelief and shock. Daisy looked around with a smug smile on her face. "Any protests?"

"Uh, yeah!" Mimi called out and stood up. "You can't drop our mark by 30 percent if we don't wanna show up to some football game."

"I can, and I will. Who's the teacher here Mimi?" Daisy crossed her arms and stared the little green girl down. "I'd recommend you show up, especially with your current grade."

Mimi's face went red in embarrassment and sat back down. Nobody else dared to stand up to Daisy, they knew how fiery her personality was. How Luigi ended up being her boyfriend, nobody knew.

The class went on, but everyone felt unsettled. They were dreading the game at the end of next month, and after the final bell rang, word got out. Some were scared and decided they weren't even going to show up. Other people were fired up and claimed that they were going to either participate in the game or show up to support it.

Someone planned on showing up to the game to support, until they got a text. He was called a traitor, and a disgrace. He sighed. He knew he didn't belong at this school, but it was better than Mush High.

Nobody knew that he was a former student there, and now… now he didn't feel so certain that he'd attend the game. He didn't want anyone else calling him a traitor - he was no longer loyal to Mush High. No, now he was loyal to this school… right?


	12. Chapter 11: Resolutions

**A/N: Welcome back once again! I hope you're all enjoying this story, and I'm happy yet sad to announce that next chapter will be the final one - and it'll be one hell of a chapter, that's for sure. I've had a great time writing this, I've been writing it since… June, I think. I was very worried in all honesty, fearing that this story would have no characters submitted and no one reading it. But I'm really thankful that I got more characters that I expected and way more reviews, follows, favourites and even messages about this story! I've even had art submitted and I just wanted to say thank you for all of that. I can only hope the next story in this series will be as good as this one. Thank you all for supporting me!**

 **In this chapter and the next, I'll be somewhat-introducing two new characters named Valentina and Venus (both owned by me - also in case I never clarified, William and Mark don't belong to me! They belong to Drybowser48 and Bluestripe115 respectively) and I'm super excited for everyone to meet them. They're… an interesting duo, to say the least. I'm introducing them this early in case if someone, who will be submitting a character for the next story, wants to have any sort of relationship to either of them (friends, crushes, enemies).**

 **Also, about the two love triangles that I had you all vote on: by the time I'm writing this, it's clear who will end up with who (or won't). I realize now that I'm glad the votes turned out the way they did because for some characters, I have not yet gotten permission to write them into the next story. That means that even if they had won, it would be so pointless of me to write them as dating someone right at the end of this story, and then not being able to write their character again in the next. Do you see my problem?**

 **That's why I'm encouraging everyone who has already submitted a character for this story to simply leave a review now saying 'Hey, feel free to keep writing for *insert character name here*' if you want your character to show up again in the next story.**

 **Here are the votes by the time I'm writing this chapter, so you can know what they were. Wolfe: 4, Electra: 3. Candy: 2, Cheryl: 1, Neither Candy nor Cheryl: 2. In the end, with Iggy's love triangle, it came down to me to make the final decision which was the reason I wrote that last paragraph - that was how I decided what would be best for this particular triangle.**

 **As for characters coming back in the next story, so far I have only have permission to continue using Gabby and Amethyst. Please, if you want your character to come back in the next work, leave a review stating so. Thanks!**

 **Anyways, enough of the super long note. Let's get on with the story!**

 **Edit: Sorry for the long time it took me to write this chapter - I originally wanted to release it nearly a week ago. I've been going through some stuff that I won't get into because really it's just a lot to talk about that I'm sure not many people really wanna know, so just know that I'm sorry. I also haven't edited this at all or looked it over - I should, but I have no time, so bear with me if the plot isn't as good as usual. Sorry once again.**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters belong to Nintendo. All other characters belong to their respective owners. I only own Lindsay, Abigail, and the regular story.**

Sooner than everyone expected, December rolled around and the days got colder. Snow began to fall in the dreary land, and the air became more crisp. Despite all the tension between many, many people, mostly everyone came together to get in the holiday spirit. Christmas trees were placed in various spots around the school, there was even a holiday party being planned for after the big football game!

Speaking of the big game, it was only a day away - surprisingly, people were excited for it now. As it got closer and closer, more students were motivated to support their school - Koopa Troop Academy. Yeah, the name sounds much nicer than the school itself.

Kammy Koopa, as stated before, is the head of the school, so she got to decide on the name. Being a high-ranking member of the Koopa Troop, an alliance lead by King Koopa himself, she decided to name the school after the group. As for the academy part of the name? She wanted something that made the school sounded more high-class than Mush High's "crummy name", as she put it.

She took pride in the school, and she encouraged everyone to do the same. Late November she hosted an assembly after barely anyone wanted to attend the game. "Are we going to be trampled by a school full of stuck-up, posh, cowardly toads? Come on everyone! We're _Koopa Troop Academy_ , damn it, and we're great!"

Surprisingly, her little speech worked. Nearly everyone bought a ticket to that game later on in the day and by the end of that week, they had an entire football team (plus some extra volunteers) ready to go! Though she would never admit it, she was proud of all her students.

Back to the present day. Currently it was lunchtime and there was a football practice taking place, though many people were on the sidelines watching. On the field was a wide assortment of football players. It was a mix of both guys and girls, which is mainly why Kammy didn't just ask one of the school's football team to play in the game - she wanted to give both guys and girls a chance to play together. On the team were eleven players: Roy, Wolfe, Morton, Abigail, William, Wendy, O'Chunks, Lemmy, Larry, Mark, and Iggy.

Weird mix, but each player had traits that would come in handy during the game. Some were obviously very athletic, some were very aggressive, some were strategic, and some were just good at trash-talking. This school was ready to use whatever they could to win the game, even if it meant just simply yelling insults to distract the other team. 'You gotta do what you gotta do' was this team's motto.

Right now they were taking turns playing practice games against each other, five against five with one person on the bench for that short round. Simply put, it was a mess.

"Roy, pass!" Morton called over to his brother, who aimed to throw the football at him.

Hyaah!" Wolfe cried out, tackling Morton just as he caught the ball. She grabbed it from him and ran off with it, leaving Morton on the ground in slight pain.

"Isn't that against the rules?" William asked his teammate Larry who just shrugged and tried not to laugh at his poor brother.

"I don't think anyone here really cares that much for rules." Larry mumbled and William nodded in agreement. There wasn't even anyone coaching them - well, no. That was a lie. There _was_ a teacher 'coaching' them, but they weren't really. On the bleachers was Mr. Crump who was told to coach the team. He obviously didn't really want to do it, all he had said was 'play against each other, do whatever, be as sneaky as you want.'

When one of the students had a question for him, he'd surprisedly look up from his laptop with a 'buh-huh?!', as if he forgot he was there. Eventually, the students learned to just ignore him. The referees were the various students watching, almost like a jury. They'd vote on what was fair and what wasn't, even if they had no idea what any of the rules of football were.

The current group of students watching were all huddled under a huge red blanket with a bucket of caramel popcorn: Amethyst, Lindsay, Candy, Norman, and Gabby. Originally it was just Amethyst, Lindsay, Norman and Gabby but they saw Candy walking around looking a bit down and they invited her to join them. She was super shy, of course, but she found they were easy to talk to.

Why was she so sad earlier? In the morning, she had confronted Cheryl. ' _About what?_ ', you may ask. Well, ever since Dimentio claimed that her and Cheryl had unspoken problems with the other, she was feeling very worried. Cheryl was one of her closest friends - she didn't want problems between the two of them! So at Cheryl's locker, Candy asked her, "Cheryl, we don't have problems, right?"

Cheryl looked down and thought for a moment. "Not with each other specifically… but, it's hard liking the same guy." Candy nodded, and Cheryl continued. "You've been a great friend but I'm scared that we'll end up like Wolfe and Electra."

The two glanced at the girls mentioned who were both looking extremely down. Wolfe thought she had it figured out - she told Larry to make a choice, but each day he asked for more time to think about it. At this point, he was avoiding the two girls, like how Iggy was with Candy and Cheryl.

Candy sighed and nodded once again. "I know. We need to talk to him."

Then she was worrying for the whole day. What if Iggy just ran from them again? They planned to talk to him during gym class that day, so the suspense was truly killing the two girls. However, Candy was feeling a bit better after watching all of them play football and chatting with the other four students.

"You sure you don't want any popcorn, Lindsay?" Norman asked her, holding out the bucket to her. Lindsay grimaced and looked away.

"Ew, no. I loved caramel popcorn a few years ago, and then I got stomach flu right after eating it. It's safe to say that ruined it for me. You guys can have the whole bucket." Lindsay looked a bit green just thinking about it and Amethyst shrugged.

"More for me!"

Lunchtime started to end - only ten minutes left. The football team huddled together, going over their plans for the game tomorrow. "Okay guys," Roy started, putting his arms around as many of his teammates as he could. "I think we're set for tomorrow. Everyone remember the plan? Abigail and Wendy," He turned to the two ladies mentioned. "You two are our aggressive, trash-talkers who are free to fight. I know you guys don't know all the rules of football but that's fine, just no broken bones, got it?"

"Uh, hold on," Abigail held up a finger. "You said it's fine if someone's nose gets broken."

"Wha- no, that's not okay!" O'Chunks spoke up and Roy waved him off.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. If anything, pretend it's an accident." Roy confirmed and Abigail nodded. "Next, our strategizer: Iggy. You're not athletic, or strong, or good at trash-talking, or aggressive."

Iggy waited a moment. "...But?"

"But nothing, you kinda suck dude. Just stay in the back and call out any penalties that their team makes."

Iggy scoffed and crossed his arms after hearing the insult. "Wow, okay, it's not like I assigned everyone else their roles or something. Jeez…"

Roy grinned and patted Iggy on the back a little too harshly, causing him to nearly fall over. Wolfe helped him regain his balance. "Next, our strong guys: that's me, Morton, William and O'Chunks. Our job is to tackle and be aggressive and intimidating. We pass to our runners, got it?" Morton and O'Chunks nodded.

"Finally, our runners. You guys are super fast and pretty athletic," He turned to Lemmy, Mark, Wolfe and Larry. "Your job is to catch the ball and run as quick as you can to get touchdowns. Cool?" The four nodded and the whole team cheered. They were pretty excited - they were sure that they would win.

Zip Toad watched from underneath the bleachers and sighed sadly. He had wanted to be there on the team or at least wanted to sit with the others and cheer them on. All he could think of was the text he got from an old friend at Mush High.

Yes, Zip used to attend Mush High. He had attended it when he was a freshman - before he was a celebrity. He transferred out and was homeschooled for all of tenth grade - that was when he peaked and became famous. Then for eleventh and twelfth grade he was here at Koopa Troop Academy. He didn't think anyone remembered him - he was a total loser in the ninth grade, or so he thought. He didn't think huge, bent out of shape glasses and hand-me-down clothes were cool - at least not on him. He actually thought they looked kinda cute on some people, but him? No. He thought he looked like a doofus, and surely no one remembered him. But of course, she did. He looked down at his phone again to read the text for the hundredth time.

' _From V: looks like we're gonna see each other again, z. don't think i've forgotten about you! i know now that you attend that academy. i can't help but think that you're a traitor - though deep down i guess i wish it was a lie. but the only liar here is you. you promised you'd be back and you never came back, instead going to the school full of villains. my sister can't help but call you a disgrace of a toad, and i can't help but agree. are you as excited for our reunion as i am?_ ''

It was super ominous - he fought back the urge to roll his eyes. Valentina always knew how to be dramatic. Or was this from Venus? Grambi, he couldn't even tell anymore. Those two were always so over-the-top. Maybe that's where he got it from.

He remembered being friends with the twin girls in ninth grade. At least, he thought they were friends. From the tone of this message, whichever girl this was didn't seem very happy. He was a bit upset with himself, not being able to tell either of them apart. He knew they hated being mistaken for the other, even though they were identical.

He remembered their pearly smiles and bright blue eyes. They definitely got their looks from their mom, Princess Peach. Yeah, Venus and Valentina were the twin daughters of Princess Peach and Mario. An iconic couple, with such iconic daughters. He couldn't help but crush on both of them in the ninth grade - at different times, of course.

He remembered coming to his first class on the first day; late of course.

 _Zip stumbled into the classroom, his teacher looking at him with sharp eyes. The teacher remained silent and the poor toad clumsily made his way to an empty desk. He was right next to a girl with blonde, straight hair and curious blue eyes. She turned and smiled at him, telling him not to worry about the cranky teacher. He thanked her and she introduced herself as Venus. He couldn't help but crush on her; how coincidental, her being named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She seemed perfect; too perfect._

He missed Venus. They became good friends, but his crush on her did end up fading. She was too perfect for him, he felt as though she was superior. However, they were good friends. So good that she introduced him to her twin sister, Valentina.

' _Zip!' Venus cried out across the lunchroom and waved him over. 'I can't believe you haven't met her yet - here is my very best friend, my twin sister Valentina.' Valentina was an exact copy of Venus - they both had the same long, blonde locks of hair and blue eyes the colour of a sapphire. She stretched out a hand to Zip who took it right away._

They were both model students and he was close friends with both of them. They both looked exactly like their mother, Peach, and exactly like each other. At first the two didn't mind, but towards springtime, Valentina broke down. Zip remembered that incident too well.

 _She shrieked, smashing the mirror in her bedroom as Zip sat on the bed watching her. Tears streamed down her face, blood streamed down her fist, and Zip knew better than to interrupt her. It wasn't like her to act out like this. 'I can't do this, I can't be a perfect little girl and always get confused with my stupid, fake sister! I am not Venus, I'm Valentina, and these idiots can't get that through their head!'_

' _Valentina-' Zip couldn't agree with what she said about Venus; she wasn't fake, but he knew Valentina didn't mean what she said. She was just angry for always being confused with her sister, and feeling like she had to live up to everyone's expectations since Venus did._

' _I need your help Zip.' She turned around with a wide-eyed expression and pulled out a box of dark brown hair dye. That night, Zip stayed over to help her 'reinvent herself' as she put it. No one else in the castle complained - her parents were proud of her for doing what she wanted to do. Zip thought it was a beautiful moment and that was when he developed a crush on Valentina._

He couldn't decide if he was happy to see the two girls again or not. Zip sighed deeply and banged his head against the bleachers. He felt torn apart.

He wasn't the only one who felt torn apart. Football practice ended, and Wolfe saw Larry trying to sneak away. She had enough of his ignoring her and Electra - as she said before, it wasn't fair to either of them. She knew what she had to do - she tackled him. "Argh!" Larry cried, hitting the ground. "Wolfe?!"

"Larry, you've had enough time to think. I'm sorry for doing this but I'm done - tell me right now if you would rather date me or Electra or neither of us, this is ridiculous!"

"Wolfe-"

"No, sorry but I'm not done talking!" She pinned him down and tried to hold in her emotions. "Larry, we both like you so much. You're a great guy, but what you're doing right now? You're being a wimp."

"I know-"

"It's just a simple question! In your heart, what do you think you should do?"

"Well I was _trying_ to think of how to improve our next date."

"...What?"

Wolfe let Larry get up and he grinned a bit sheepishly. "I like you a lot, Wolfe. Like, a lot. I thought it over and I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn't know how to put it in words yet. I actually wrote a whole speech, and had it prepared…"

"Wait really?" Wolfe tried not to laugh and Larry nodded.

"Yep. I also was trying to think of a really cool date to ask you on, so I could be all cool and be like 'hey Wolfe I like you as well, let's hit the town' but that obviously didn't work out." He looked down and felt kind of embarrassed. Wolfe couldn't hold back a smile.

"You're such a dork. You realize you could've just asked me on a date in any way and I would've been happy, right?" She grabbed his hands and he blushed. Some students from afar couldn't help but grin at the cute sight.

"Um," He looked around with wide eyes. "I should probably break the news to Electra, huh?" Wolfe nodded, but Electra stepped out from behind the bleachers. That was one of her favourite hobbies after all: watching Larry.

"No need." She smiled a bit sadly at the two. "It's okay Larry, I just want you to be happy, you know?"

Larry smiled at her and nodded. "Thanks Electra." He was thankful she wasn't mad or anything, and that she understood. He felt a wave of relief and looked back at Wolfe. "So, about that date…" She couldn't fight back a chuckle.

Iggy watched them with sad eyes. He was happy for them of course, he just wished he could do the same as Larry. He so badly wanted to pull one of the girls aside and tell them his feelings, but he couldn't do it. He liked them both and wanted to get closer to both of them, but that wouldn't be fair. He couldn't choose between them, and he couldn't choose both of them. That left…

He sighed and looked down. He couldn't wait anymore, and neither could they.

Minutes before gym class started, Iggy nearly burst down the door and saw Candy and Cheryl socializing. A pit in his stomach grew as he looked at them. ' _It's now or never, Iggy, and never is not an option._ ' "Candy! Cheryl!"

The girls looked over in surprise and a bit of confusion. He approached them and nervously cracked his knuckles - a habit of his when he was nervous. "Um, I just wanted to - to tell you guys. Uh, I made a decision."

The girls looked at each other. They both felt the same mixture of emotions: relief, and nervousness. Of course both of them wanted Iggy to have feelings for just them, but they also didn't want this to ruin anything. Thankfully, Iggy felt the same way. "I don't, um, think I can choose either of you?"

"Wow, way to go, Iggy!" Wendy sarcastically yelled to her nerd of a brother from the other side of the gym. It was then that the three realized that all eyes were on them, and Iggy felt a thousand times more nervous.

"Oh boy." He nervously glanced back at Candy and Cheryl who both looked at him with sad eyes. "Don't be sad! I really like both of you. That's why this was so hard. I can't choose between you two. It's just not fair to any of us, so I think it'd be better if we all just stay friends."

A moment of silence passed, and everyone in the class was watching them with eager eyes. Eventually, Candy spoke up. "I think that's a good idea, and honestly, a relief."

"Really?" Iggy smiled a bit and the blonde returned it.

"Yeah, it was awful being in a love triangle. I think it'd be much better if we all just stay friends."

Iggy and Candy glanced at Cheryl who looked to be in deep thought. Finally, she nodded. "Yeah, I think that's the best. Friends come first, and sometimes relationships can ruin things."

Everyone in the class cheered for them - as long as they were happy, everyone else was happy for them too. Everyone except a certain green-haired girl, Wendy noticed.

Mimi sat on the bleachers, texting someone on her phone. Normally Mimi had a constant smug expression on her face, but Wendy noticed that now Mimi looked a bit nervous. Almost a bit worried, even. She contemplated asking her what was wrong, but then Mimi noticed her staring and gave her a dirty look. Wendy scoffed and looked away - Mimi hated her for some odd reason, and Wendy didn't know why.

She then noticed Abigail giving Mimi an icy glare, and wondered what the hell was up with Mimi. "What the hell is up with Mimi?" The ginger girl glanced over at Wendy and looked a bit worried for her.

"I don't think I should say - you'd probably wanna go punch her guts out."

Wendy waited for her to continue, but Abigail stayed silent. "Um, hello? Yeah, like telling me that isn't gonna make me any less curious! Spill it! Why does she always look like I just killed her whole family or something?"

Abigail was thinking back to the little meeting Mimi had thrown a few weeks ago, saying she wanted the Koopalings to be expelled. She had told her… boyfriend…? Wait, was Roy even her boyfriend? They had ended up going on a few dates over the past few weeks, but he hadn't officially asked her or anything. Whatever, that's off topic. She had told Roy about the meeting but he had just brushed it off, saying that Mimi couldn't do anything, but not to tell the others because they might confront her about it. He claimed she just wanted attention from that and eventually, Abigail came to believe it; more or less. She still didn't trust Mimi, but she hadn't really done much else since the meeting.

"Sorry Wendy, it's nothing."

Abigail couldn't help but wonder what had even gotten into Mimi. Lately she didn't even make sense. She used to be one of Abigail's best friends - a little bratty, but she was trustworthy and always tried to be there for her. Ever since the Koopalings had arrived - the start of the school year - she had just gotten super envious and even more bratty. Abigail couldn't wrap her head around why.

She seemed to be the most envious of Wendy. It was true that Wendy and Abigail had clicked again and were very good friends, but Mimi shouldn't have felt threatened by her. Abigail thought the two would hit it off well, but apparently not.

In the end, though Mimi was certainly a brat, Abigail wished deep down that Mimi would come to her senses and realize the Koopalings weren't evil. She didn't even know where she got that idea in the first place. Jealousy?

Class seemed to fly by for all the students, and sooner than later, the final bell rang. Everyone was excited - tomorrow, classes were only in the morning. Starting at lunch was the big game, and nobody could wait much longer. Mark, for one, was very excited. He thought that he and his teammates had a solid plan, and nothing could knock them off of their game!

"Hey there!" He heard a voice from his left, and had to look down to see Lemmy. "Mark, right?" Lemmy asked, tilting his head a bit.

"Yeah… we're both on the football team - or, at least, the one playing against Mush High."

Lemmy already knew this, he just needed a reason to talk to Mark, but he couldn't say that aloud. "Oh! Right! Haha! Silly me."

Awkward silence filled the air, and Lemmy frowned. ' _Great advice Lindsay, I can't even casually start a conversation with him._ ' He thought to himself. No, he wasn't going to allow himself to feel down so soon - he thought back on his friend's advice. First things first, be friends with this guy. Maybe they had something in common?

"Do you like the circus?" Lemmy blurted out with a grin on his face - he couldn't resist smiling from the mention of the circus. The small Koopaling had always dreamed of taking part in the circus - recently, he had somewhat lived it out during a recent scheme against Mario. He had been performing at a place called The Emerald Circus, and boy was it a good time.

Lemmy reminisced for a moment, thinking back on that place. His main goal was supposed to be withholding some Big Paint Star so Mario couldn't get it, but Lemmy honestly didn't focus that much on it. At the time, he had been more focused on actually performing at that circus.

He performed many tricks and acts on his giant ball, amazing the crowd before him. Lemmy had to admit, they were easily entertained, but that was fine with him. Ever since then, all he wanted to do was to go back to that circus and feel the rush of adrenaline as he performed many illusions. He liked to think that someday, he really would be an official performer. That had to be his dream job.

"The circus?" Mark asked, opening his locker to retrieve some textbooks. "I don't think I've ever been to a circus… I've heard that they're super fun though, so I'd love to go someday."

"You've never been to a circus?" Lemmy loudly asked, completely in shock. He didn't think he'd ever met someone who's never been to a circus - well, he probably had met someone like that, he just didn't think too much about it.

Mark shook his head side to side and closed his locker door. "Nope. Kind of sucks, but what can you really do when the nearest circus is in the Mushroom Kingdom, three hours away as well." He zipped up his backpack, full of textbooks, and hauled it over a shoulder. "I gotta get going Lemmy, see you tomorrow?"

Lemmy smiled and nodded, a bit disappointed that their conversation was over so soon. He tried not to be too upset though - he was one step closer to at the very _least_ being friends with Mark, which he was glad about. "See ya!"

He walked through the hallways on his way to Ludwig's car - usually parked on the grass at the back of school - and noticed all the school spirit. Everyone was excited for the game tomorrow, that's all he could hear conversations about all around him. He turned one corner and saw a sunglass-wearing toad talking to someone over the phone.

"No, I called you to tell you to stop texting me! ...Yeah, I know that we- ...No, I remember. I said I remember! Jeez… look just please don't tell anyone, I don't think anyone would be all that accepting-"

"Hey Zip." Lemmy walked up to Zip with a small smile on his face, and Zip froze.

"Oh." A moment passed, and Zip's voice was an octave higher. "Hey Lemmy."

"How's it going?"

"It's uh, it's good." He was frozen in place with a forced smile on his face. Lemmy was able to hear some female raising her voice over the phone, but couldn't understand what she was saying. He glanced at the phone, then back at Zip.

"Relationship issues?"

Zip's face went a dark red and he ended the phone call. "No- Grambi, no. I'll uh, I'll see you tomorrow Lemmy." The small toad, though taller than Lemmy, rushed away as his phone began to ring again. Lemmy heard heels walking up from behind him, and knew it was his sister Wendy.

"What the hell was that all about?" She asked, pursing her lips together. The small Koopa shook his head, not having a clue at all. Wendy then shrugged and elbowed Lemmy a bit. "Well, whatever. Let's go, Ludwig's probably waiting for us already. I swear, he better have warmed up the car because it's always _so_ cold! This new car sucks, I wish we had the old one…"

They made it out of the school along with many others. The snow was falling softly, and the sun had already begun setting just enough to give the land a warm glow. It was breathtaking, but that's one thing the residents of Darklands never did; they never stopped to appreciate the small things in life. Everyone was too stressed or excited for the big game tomorrow.

Sure, it wasn't as big of a deal as they all made it; it really was just a football game. To them though, and to the students of Mush High, it felt like so much more than that. The two schools had never really interacted all that much face-to-face, though the school rivalry was for sure there. This was the first time a lot of them would be seeing their 'rivals', so the confident ones were excited for that while the insecure students were more nervous.

Either way, everyone knew that tomorrow would be one hell of a day. All they could do now was wait.


	13. Chapter 12: Grand Finale

**A/N: Well, here it is, the final chapter for this story. Welcome, and happy holidays! I'm really excited to be posting this chapter - we've come so far! It doesn't feel real to me, I never thought I'd be able to actually write** _ **and finish**_ **a whole fic. Thank you all for supporting me just by reading this! I know, I know, I'm getting really sappy right now but really, when am I ever not sappy and emotional?**

 **I tried to make this chapter extra long (6600+ words compared to my usual range from 4000-5500) because, of course, it's the grande finale. At least, for this story in the series. For those of you who haven't heard: THIS IS NOT THE LAST STORY IN THIS LITTLE SERIES OF MINE! I'll be making another story in this universe that takes place almost right after this story (maybe a few weeks/a month after?) so keep an eye out for that (I'll be accepting new characters for that one, wink wink). I'll probably post the prologue to that on January 1st, 2018.**

 **Also, side note about this chapter: I have a very vague idea on what the rules of football consist of. If I got anything wrong and you notice that, please just ignore it, it's really not a huge deal. Thanks!**

 **This chapter is a very intense one, so I hope you'll all enjoy it and be on the edge of your seats while reading it. And thank you all for letting me write about your characters, I've had a great time writing about them, and I hope you're all happy with the results. Let's get into the story, shall we?**

 **Last minute note: I just realized Bowser's kingdom is actually called Dark Land and not Darklands… mandela effect? Kidding - but how have I been mis-saying it for literally my entire life? Oh well… for this story at least, we're calling it Darklands, sorry not sorry.**

 **ANOTHER NOTE: I was re-reading the first story in this series (first of all, oh my god, the cringe…) and noticed that Abigail's surname is in fact JOHNSON and not Jones…?! My memory is really wearing on me, and I'm not even out of high school yet…**

 **Disclaimer: All Nintendo characters belong to Nintendo. All other characters belong to their respective owners. I only own Lindsay, Abigail, Venus, Valentina, and the regular story.**

The day had finally arrived - the big football game between rival schools. One being our beloved Koopa Troop Academy, a high school in Darklands, and the other one being Mush High, a school full of preps. Both schools had much pride, each thinking they were the superior school.

The world isn't just black and white - no school is clearly superior to the other. They both had great aspects about themselves. Mush High prides themselves on their arts programs and good behaviour. Koopa Troop Academy, however, prides themselves on their english programs and on their ambitious attitudes.

As you can see, the schools are very different, though they both think that their own sports programs are superior. That's been the main cause of the feud between schools.

How exactly did the two schools even begin to hate each other after barely even interacting? Well, most people pin it on Peach and Bowser, since both of them technically own one or the other school. Peach is the principal of Mush High, whereas Bowser owns Koopa Troop Academy and just lets Kammy run it.

Why do people blame Koopa and Toadstool for the rivalry? There was a bit of shade that Peach had thrown one day - not on purpose, of course… A reporter had asked her if she thought her school's sports department was the best in the whole world, to which she replied with 'yes'. Well, once Bowser had heard of this, he had a good laugh.

Reporters asked the king himself how he felt about Peach thinking her school was superior in the athletic side of things, and all he could do was laugh for a good minute. After a while of kneeling over and crying tears of laughter, all he could say was, "This comes from the girl who can't defend herself for the life of her - literally!"

After that? The students of Mush High were beyond angered. They felt humiliated that their principal was mocked by _Bowser_ , who seemed to think his school was better than their own! It seemed ridiculous to them, and they got the idea that everyone at "Bowser's school" was just like him - thus began the well-known hatred shared between schools.

Not much had actually occurred between the two schools, face-to-face at least, until now.

Now, they could finally prove themselves to the other one. They could prove that they were the better school - or, at least better at football. This game had a lot riding on it, and Daisy began worrying about it. She and Peach were the ones who had come up with the idea in the first place but now she thought it was an awful idea. She was actually currently on the phone with Peach, discussing the game.

"I don't know, Peach… the students here are really riled up. Kammy had the _great idea_ to give us a pep talk and ever since then? They've been determined to crush you guys."

Peach giggled over the phone and then sighed. "That's a funny thought - you guys crushing my own team. We've been training for weeks!"

Daisy raised an eyebrow at this and paused for a second before replying. "Yeah… well, we have too. I gotta say, the team's pretty good, you guys able to handle it?"

"Daisy!" Peach scolded her. "Of course we're able to handle it, we're bringing in the best referee to make sure there's no dirty tricks."

"Dirty tricks?" Daisy asked her, a twinge of disbelief in her voice. "You know I wouldn't teach these kids any dirty tricks. They're actually super athletic and full of ambition!" She stood up off of her bed in her room, clenching her left fist together, right hand holding her phone to her ear.

Peach scoffed over the phone, a bit of frustration seeping through her voice. "Oh yeah? Have you even been coaching them? I've been personally coaching my team and they're ready to kick ass. Are you ready, Daisy?" There was a pause until the blonde princess spoke again, her voice raspy. "Are you ready?"

Daisy's face was red with anger - she knew Peach had a secret competitive side but really? She was doubting Daisy's coaching skills! ...Okay, so Daisy wasn't even actually coaching them except for in gym class, but that had to count for something right? She sighed before narrowing her blue eyes. "Oh yeah, we're ready. Bring it on, damsel in distress, 'cause I'm gonna be a damsel in success!"

With a gasp from Peach, she hung up the phone. Her reflection stared back at her from the now-dark screen and she sighed. "These kids better beat them."

That was around five in the morning - Daisy couldn't sleep after that. She went for a quick jog around Darklands. Yeah… the princess of Sarasaland lived in Darklands. Weird, right? Usually she actually lives in the Mushroom Kingdom but after applying for the coach job at this school, she just decided to move here, at least for now.

The sun began to rise on the gloomy land and she, for once, took the time to appreciate this kingdom. Everyone overlooks it because it, for the most part, is dark and sinister, but Daisy had to admit that sometimes it really did look beautiful.

She jogged around town for a bit, making sure not to slip on the ice, until she heard voices yelling from around the corner. "Come on guys, it's like a twenty minute run! It's not that exhausting…"

Daisy ran up and looked around the corner to see none other than the football team. It seemed like they were going on a morning run to get ready for the game today. Wolfe was leading the pack with great posture and enthusiasm - well, until Abigail stopped running. She was panting and leaned against a streetlamp. "Geez… why do I even have to run if all I'm gonna be doing is telling the other team that they suck?"

The other members of the team turned to look at her and saw Daisy looking at them. Wolfe sweatdropped and sighed, giving Abigail a glare. "Abigail, we're all gonna be playing football the correct way and super fairly, right?" She narrowed her crimson eyes at the others and they all nodded, looking a bit nervous. Abigail scoffed until she turned her head and noticed Coach Daisy.

"Oh. Hey Coach, uh-" Abigail waved, a sheepish grin on her face and Daisy raised an eyebrow.

"What was that about telling the other team that they suck?"

The students looked at each other, wondering what to say. Finally, Iggy spoke up. "Well, y'see, coach-"

Daisy burst out laughing, ringing out throughout the silent street. "You know what guys? Do what you gotta do, give it your all. Crush 'em like the bugs they are!" She clenched her fist and the others looked at her with confused looks on their faces. "Uh… I mean, ahem, it's not about who wins and who loses, we're all winners in the end." They could tell she was lying through her teeth. "Ah, who am I kidding - crush them! We're the best around here, not that cocky school!"

The students cheered, feeling a fire ignite in them. They were going to win that damn football game even if it took a lot of effort, tricks, and skill. They knew they could do it.

Around noon, the game was supposed to begin. It was currently eleven o'clock and everyone was gathered outside. The football team was practising with each other the best they could with Mr. Crump and Coach Daisy watching and encouraging them. The rest of the school were seated on the bleachers, waiting in anticipation.

Any moment, Mush High was supposed to arrive. Normally for sports games or tournaments, only the team would be invited to the game but Mush High insisted on attending for support.

The air was cold despite the sun beating down on the field, so hot chocolate was currently being passed around to various students along with some thick blankets. Pretty much the whole school came to attend, so classes were cancelled for the day.

Around 11:30, Daisy began getting impatient. "Geez, just like Peach to be late…" She muttered to Crump who was shivering next to her in his jacket. She eyed him warily. "You good, Crump?"

"Wha-? Oh, yeah. Just thinkin' of better ways to spend my day…"

Daisy rolled her eyes and looked away, then gasped loudly, causing everyone around her to hear her say, "They're here."

They followed her gaze and saw a large group coming from around the corner. Leading the group of course was Peach herself, a small smile on her face as she walked in between her dear daughters: Venus and Valentina. Daisy inwardly groaned - it wasn't that she didn't like her nieces, she just thought that they were always the center of attention. Shouldn't the football team be leading their school to the field?

Peach was wearing a fancy winter outfit - she wore a dark pink pantsuit, maroon jacket, and some red heeled boots. She was trying to look confident and sure of herself but almost everyone noticed her eyes flickering left and right - she was a bit afraid of Darklands. Her daughters though? They couldn't have looked more confident.

Venus was on the right of Peach - the blonde twin. Her blue eyes shone brightly as she gazed around the field, twiddling with a small string of her fair, straight hair. She wore a pink sweater with a white Peter Pan-styled collar along with a simple white skirt. Over that, she wore a white jacket and some light pink heels. She looked a lot like her mother - unlike her twin.

Valentina stood out from them with her dark brown wavy hair and bold makeup. She looked more curious than her sister, taking the time to gaze upon each face she could see. She was wearing a simple dark red dress with a black jacket and black boots. Sure, she resembled her mom a bit, but she looked a bit more unpredictable than the other girls in her family.

Behind them were all the students attending Mush High - they sure contrasted to the Darklands students. A good majority of them were toads, but some were humans, koopas, and some other species that weren't very common.

"Am I the only one feeling really intimidated right now?" Wendy whispered to her teammates who remained silent. She looked over at her fellow students and knew they felt just as confident as she did, which wasn't a good thing.

Eventually, the students of Mush High went to go sit on the bleachers on the opposite side of the field, leaving Peach and the football team which consisted of mainly toads. William laughed a bit, "I don't feel as intimidated anymore." Some of his teammates laughed with him, like Larry and Mark, but they shut up when a green toad sent them a chilling glare.

Peach approached Daisy and Crump with the same smile on her face. "The big day's finally come."

Daisy nodded, still upset at Peach for their earlier phone call. "Yep. Well, game's starting in 25 minutes. Your team can prep if they need to-"

"We don't." Peach turned to look at her football team. "Right guys? I mean, practice if you _want_ , but I know that you guys are as prepared as you'll ever be." Her team nodded and she turned back to the floral princess with a challenging glare.

Don't get her wrong, Peach wasn't a mean person, she was just very, _very_ competitive. Daisy knew this and let out a small chuckle. "Okay, well, just tryin' to be polite."

"Thanks, Daisy!" Peach grinned and Daisy couldn't help but grin back. The two took their seats on the bleachers before the brunette turned to say something.

"So… who's the referee you guys brought?"

"Oh! He's actually coming right now!" The pink principal pointed to where the group had originally come from, and a red blob came from the corner. Daisy let out a deep sigh - of course, how could she _not_ see this coming? This was just like Peach…

The plumber approached the two princesses, decked out in some cheesy 80's-looking athletic-wear. "Hey, Daisy!" Mario greeted them with his classic smile and Daisy tried to smile back.

"Hi, Mario."

"Isn't he such a good choice?" Peach grinned and that's when the Darklands football team noticed Mario.

"Oh hell no." Roy marched over, his team close behind. "This is not fair - you want _Mario_ to be our referee? Mario, who hates our guts? Mario, who's dating one of the team's coaches?"

"Oh come on Roy!" Mario grinned, playfully nuding the bully with his elbow. "We're not enemies for today, I promise you I'll be fair!" Roy glared up at him through his shades before turning to Daisy.

"Coach, please, you see how this isn't fair right?!" He raised his voice a bit, drawing the attention of a certain blonde.

"Geez, you guys are so harsh." Venus spoke, her voice incredibly soft and soothing despite her words. "Lighten up a bit, huh? My dad's a great referee-"

"No one was talking to you, princess!" Wendy called out and Venus frowned. She opened her mouth to speak again but Wendy cut her off. "Uh! Shush. Please." The blonde princess gave up and sulked, sinking back into her seat on the bleachers next to her sister. Valentina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"No one was talking to you either, wanna-be. This topic doesn't have anything to do with someone as whiny as you." Her voice was more rough, and had more of an italian accent than her sister. Wendy scoffed and balled up her fists.

"Hey!" Larry called out. "No one calls Wendy whiny except me and my brothers!"

"Yeah!" Iggy, Roy, and Lemmy confirmed.

"Yea- wait, what? Rude!" Wendy glared at her brothers and Mario sighed.

"Come on guys, calm down. This is just a simple, friendly game of football. I know we're all ready to go-"

"Then let's start now!" Mark yelled, eager to play. His team cheered in agreement and Mario turned to Peach for her opinion. She nodded and he sighed again.

"Okay… teams, to the field."

The crowds hushed, watching the two teams take their places on the field. It was eleven versus eleven, and the Darklands team was ready to go. They knew their roles and what they had to do, plus they were feeling pretty confident against some toads. They knew it would be an easy game.

Boy, were they wrong.

The first half of the game consisted of them getting beat - badly. These toads were aggressive, fast, and immune to any insults. Plus, Mario gave quite a few penalties to the Darklands team for trash-talking, or an attempt at it. Lemmy also was quick to find out that no, you cannot just tackle any random player you want to and you most certainly cannot hit their head. He wished someone told him that before-hand.

"Ugh!" Abigail fell to the ground, being shoved by some blue toad. "Jeez… little respect for ladies?!" Mark quickly helped her up before rushing to try to get the ball. Harder than it looks.

One toad tried to pass to the other, but Wolfe jumped into the air and caught the ball for the first time that game. She gasped and quickly tried running to the other end to make a touchdown until a red toad tripped her. "Ack!"

She hit the ground stomach-first but kept a tight hold on the ball, holding it to her chest so no one could get to it. Quickly, she got up and tried to run but she got tackled by three different toads. Through it all, she kept a tight hold on the ball, trying to kick away the short toads. "Shoo! Jeez, you're all like little gremlins! Get lost!"

Larry quickly stole the ball from her and ran for the end, two toads right behind him. He noticed O'Chunks near the end zone and got ready to throw it. "Hey, O'Chunks!" He threw the ball in a perfect spiral, and O'Chunks caught it.

He stared at it in amazement, happy that he had actually caught something. "Larry! I got it!"

The blue-haired koopaling nodded, a bit anxious. "Yeah! Now go for a touchdown!" He noticed some toads running up to O'Chunks. "Like, now!"

"Right!" O'Chunks ran for the end zone and threw the ball down, earning their team their first point. "Yeah!"

Everyone from Koopa Troop Academy cheered as the scoreboard changed to read 24-6. Mario then called out, "That's the end of the first half everyone!" Throughout all that time, they had only scored one touchdown while the other team had score four.

The team regrouped and sat down on the ground nearby, huddling under a large blanket. "It's no use," Larry whined, leaning back on a nearby tree. "We're gonna lose and be a disgrace to our whole kingdom!"

"Don't say that," Roy scolded him. "We just need to get our heads in the game."

"Like Troy Bolton?" Lemmy asked, causing the team to groan.

"...No." Roy shook his head, glancing at his teammates. "Why are those toads so stinkin' good?"

"It's all thanks to the fat plumber." Abigail narrowed her eyes as she spoke. "He's not upfront about it, but I'm sure Peach convinced him to disregard any unfairness from the other team and give us more penalties."

"To be fair we'd probably get penalties anyways, I mean you did punch some random toad out for accidentally tripping you," Mark said as he tried not to laugh, recalling the memory.

Abigail rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "It wasn't an accident, and I know that!"

"Abigail I didn't even know you had it in you to punch someone like that." Iggy said with a slightly fearful expression. The redhead sighed and shrugged.

"Nah, I used to be pretty violent actually, I just toned it down and used my words instead."

"For once, I gotta agree, that was a smart move!" Roy nodded and everyone stared at him in shock. Roy Koopa agreeing that using words instead of actions was smart? He noticed everyone's weird expressions and tilted his head. "What? Knowledge is power."

"Oookay…" Iggy trailed off. "Back to the main issue: how are we gonna win this?"

"We crush them!" Lemmy clenched his fists and let out some high-pitched maniacal laughter.

"No, Lemmy." Wendy shook her head and closed her eyes in frustration. "We have to figure out a different plan - one that'll help us win."

"Well duh!" William rolled his eyes at her. "No, let's come up with a plan that'll help us _lose_!"

"Oh shut up!" Wendy whined. "You know what I mean!"

"Guys!" Mark yelled at them. "We have to not fight each other but fight them," He pointed at the opposing team who were currently doing sit-ups, stern looks on their face along with icy stares. "Those guys are the ones who we're supposed to be fighting!"

"I agree," Wolfe nodded, her silver hair bouncing up and down a bit. Larry couldn't help but notice that. "We have to, like Roy said, get our heads in the game!" She glanced at her teammates and noticed Morton mesmerized by the other team's cheerleading team. "That's it - why don't we have any cheerleaders?"

"Cheerleaders?" Wendy asked, a dreamy look on her face. "I'd _love_ to be a cheerleader, Wolfe!"

"No. We need you on this team, Wendy. There's gotta be some other people who'd wanna be cheerleaders…"

A smirk formed on Abigail's pale face. "Oh, I know just who to ask…"

"No way in hell."

The football team stood in front of Amethyst, Gabby, Lindsay, Candy, Electra, and Cheryl who had all decided to group up together and watch the game. Amethyst was glaring at Abigail. "I, for one, am _not_ being a cheerleader. Abigail you know that I'm super unactive!"

"Is 'unactive' even a word?" Mark questioned.

"Hush." Abigail held up a finger to his mouth and he went silent. "Amethyst - all of you - we need you, and your motivation!"

"I'll do it!" Lindsay grinned brightly while the other five girls groaned.

"Yeah, that's not surprising any of us, Lindsay." Electra let out a heavy sigh. "Why do you need cheerleaders all of a sudden?"

"We need motivation!" Morton piped up and the girls stared blankly at him.

"...That's it?" Gabby asked and sighed loudly. "I dunno… I'm not the athletic type, or the peppy type."

The other girls nodded in agreement for the most part and the football team sighed. They shared a glance, having the same thought, ' _how can we make them cheer us on?_ '.

"I'll give each of you twenty bucks." Iggy said, though it was phrased more like a question.

The girls glanced at each other and began to smirk, all coming to the same decision. "Deal!"

Halftime was almost over by the time all the girls were front and centre, ready to cheer - more or less. They stood at the side of the field near the coaches and Candy noticed Zip Toad… hiding behind the bleachers? She frowned and quickly made her way over to him. "Zip?"

"Ack!" He shrieked, not seeing her coming. "Oh, hey Candy. Can I help you..?"

"Um, why are you hiding from everyone?" He frowned as she asked this.

"I just need to avoid two certain girls…"

"Like me?" Valentina popped around the other side of the bleachers and Zip shrieked louder than he had before. "Awh, Zip, I'm hurt. You didn't miss me?"

"Geez… it's not that I didn't miss you, it's just that-"

"Wait. I know." The brunette grinned and leaned closer to him, Candy watching the two a bit awkwardly, feeling out-of-place. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"No," Zip glared up at her, staring at her bright blue eyes and dark lashes. "Just leave me alone, Valentina-"

"Like how you left me alone?" She asked him and his face fell. "You're scared that I'll reveal your big secret to everyone here and you'll be left all alone, just like how you left me."

"Seeya." Candy waved goodbye and sneaked away, knowing those two needed their space… whatever was going on between them.

Zip frowned up at Valentina. "You were alone after I left?"

"Uh, yeah." She crossed her pale arms across herself. "It's _Mush High_ , sassy girls like myself don't have many friends. I only had you, Zip, and you left me to go have your 5 minutes of fame."

"You had Venus!"

"Yeah, like she actually wants to be my friend!" She frowned, her eyes falling down. "I felt like everyone hated me for most of my years at Mush High. Now I managed to make some friends, but did you really think that a sassy, kind of rude girl like myself could easily make friends? It was hard, especially when people _still_ compared me to Venus."

Zip sighed and looked over Valentina's face with sad eyes. "I… I could come back."

"No." She snapped out of her sad expression and glared down at the short toad. "You're clearly having a great time here at this academy, so whatever. I'll just let this all go for now."

He frowned - not from sadness, but from confusion. She was never one to let go of things like this so easily. "Why?"

She chuckled a bit and pushed a strand of hair behind one of her ears. "We've already got someone coming to Mush High - so really, we don't need another one. She's gonna cause even more drama, whether she knows it or not, so I don't see the need to make you the centre of attention right now." Zip watched her in confusion as she smirked at him. "See you around, Z."

He watched her walk away and wondered who the hell she was talking about. Who would be so fed up with this school that they would want to cause a scene and be the first _known_ person to switch between schools? That was a low blow to this school - at least, that's how the students will see it. Who would do that? And why?

A loud whistle came from Mario, signalling the start of the second half. The crowds roared due to the cheerleaders stirring them up. The Mush High cheerleaders were actually polite, loud, and had little routines to perform. The Koopa Troop Academy 'cheerleaders' though..?

"Kick their asses!" Gabby yelled, hoisting Cheryl up on her shoulders to send mean glares to the other team. Now, Cheryl was a polite girl but for twenty dollars? Her mean look was almost as bad as Luigi's.

Meanwhile, Candy and Lindsay were hollering insults at the cheerleaders to try to mess them up. "Hey, shortstack!" Lindsay yelled at a girl who was even shorter than herself. "When it's raining or snowing, I bet you're the last one to know!"

The girl looked confused more than anything, so Candy joined in, "She's lost in thought - she needs her time, it's probably unfamiliar territory for her!"

Lindsay burst out laughing as the cheerleader just rolled her eyes and tried to get back to her routine but her moves were a bit off. Her and Candy high-fived, a small smirk on their faces as they yelled some more random insults at some other cheerleaders.

Amethyst was sat on the ground along with Electra, criticizing the other team. "Wow, it's like these toads have never seen a football in their entire lives. HEY, IDIOT! YOU DO REALIZE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO CATCH IT WITH YOUR HANDS AND NOT YOUR FACE, RIGHT?" She yelled at a green toad who looked a bit hurt - both emotionally and physically, since he really did catch a football with his face.

Electra laughed and pointed at a purple toad. "Yeah well look at that one! Yeesh, he's gotten tackled like five times in the past two minutes?"

"It's not _my_ fault your team is extremely violent!" He yelled back at her with a scowl, but she just laughed even more.

"Well maybe you should beef up, shrimpy!"

The darklands team was pleased with their decision to get some cheerleaders. Okay, so they weren't actually cheering them on, but they were distracting the other team! The game went on and they quickly caught up in points.

It was around 2:20, which meant only ten minutes were left in the game. By this point, as fate would have it, teams were tied at 28-28. Everyone was going nuts - the coaches were on their feet, barking orders at their team. The crowds were just constantly screaming; they weren't even saying anything, just screaming. Weird, but it added to the tension.

"Come on, guys! We can do this!" Peach yelled to her team in her usual soft voice.

"COME ON TEAM! GIVE IT YOUR ALL - I SEE YOU SLACKING, MORTON!" Daisy hollered to her own team, eyes wide, fists clenched. Morton gulped and picked up the slack.

"Um, may I just say that this isn't really fair?" Venus spoke up from the front of the bleachers, near the two cheerleading teams. "Their cheerleaders are trying to distract ours - they're not even really cheerleaders…"

"Shut it, blondie." Amethyst glared at her with her intense purple eyes and Venus gulped. "It's completely fair, we're not disrupting the actual game, are we?"

"Well, you're kinda calling the team losers."

"Hey, we speak the truth here, take it or leave it."

Venus sighed and sat back down, wishing Valentina was here to talk back to the cheerleaders. She wasn't a very brave person when it came to conflicts, if you couldn't tell. Where even was her sister?

She turned around and saw her approaching with the soon-to-be new girl. "Hey Valentina!" She greeted her sister who only glanced at her.

Valentina approached the cheer team with the girl who was wearing their simple cheerleading uniform. "Here we go - game's almost over, sorry guys, it took forever to get Mimi in her get-up."

"Mimi?!" Abigail called out from the field, seeing the short green girl in Mush High's cheerleading uniform. "What the f-!" Roy ran over to her and covered her mouth. "Mmph!"

Mimi gave her a small smile that was supposed to look confident. "Um, yeah, I'm actually gonna be attending Mush High from now on, starting next week!"

"What?!" Doopliss called out from the bleachers and Dimentio pulled him back down into his seat. He looked shocked and upset - the others knew this wasn't Mimi's original plan.

"What happened to wanting to get the Koopalings expelled?" Wolfe asked with an angered face.

"Wait - what?" Larry asked her and she gave him a look telling him ' _I'll tell you later_ '.

Mimi sighed and looked at Valentina who gave her a welcoming smile. "I've decided to just let go of my issues from this school and move on! Clearly I'm not even wanted here, so it's not like things can go back to the way they were."

"That's not true!" Wendy yelled to her and then received a scowl.

"Whatever, Wendy." Mimi crossed her arms over her new uniform. "I've made up my mind - Mush High is the way to go!"

The crowd behind her cheered, full of Mush High students obviously. All everyone else could do was watch in shock - from their knowledge, she was the first student to ever switch schools. Doopliss looked shocked in the opposite bleachers and Vivian noticed.

"You okay, Doopliss?"

"No." He frowned, scowling down at the floor. "No, I'm not okay. I cared for her and-and I feel like she used me!" His voice cracked a bit and Vivian felt a bit sorry for him. "I… oh grambi, I set the Koopa's frickin' castle on fire for her."

Vivian looked a bit confused. "What?"

"I said, I set the Koopa's castle on fire for her!" The duplighost sat down holding his head in his hands as Vivian watched intensely. "She wanted to frame Amethyst for it all to rile Abigail up and get back at Wendy. She was just so jealous of Wendy."

"Why?" Vivian sat next to him, a comforting hand on his back.

"I dunno! She was just so envious this year. She wanted to be the centre of attention, you know how she is. I guess she was jealous that Wendy was so close to Abigail in such a short period of time. Lame excuse for going nuts if ya ask me, but this year she finally paid me some attention, so I wanted to do anything to be with her."

Vivian watched him with sad eyes - she felt bad for him, she really did. "Hey, it's okay. We all know you liked her, and people do crazy things when they have feelings for someone." She glanced across the field at Lindsay, and then at Ludwig on a nearby bench. "Some even deny it…" She returned her gaze to Doopliss. "But I think in this situation, it's best to just move on and forget about her."

Doopliss sighed heavily and sat back up. "I guess so." He turned his head and gave her a genuine smile, one that was rare from him. "Thanks, Vivian."

She felt a slight flutter in her heart and nearly gasped aloud. She'd never felt that before. In all honesty, she thought she liked Ludwig just a bit - even though she denied it to everyone - but she had never felt butterflies around him. Plus, she knew someone who would be a better match for him...

"You're welcome, Doopliss."

Back to the game? All players were currently giving it their all, but the darklands team were especially fired up. They had to prove that Mush High was not, in fact, the way to go. O'Chunks trampled through the players to get to the football as the last minute counted down. He shoved and pushed to get to that ball, squishing the opposite team as if they were just little pests.

"O'Chunks!" Mark yelled from the end of the field somewhat-near the endzone. O'Chunks knew he had to throw it to him, but his strongest trait was definitely not throwing. He took a deep breath and threw the ball as hard as he could - a little too hard. "Whoa- whoa- whoa- wait!" Mark freaked out and shut his eyes as the ball collided with him, sliding him back a few metres.

He opened his eyes to find out that he had actually caught the ball; and that quite a few toads were angrily chasing him. His eyes widened as he ran to the endzone, barely making it before the toads. He slammed the football down on the ground, and all anyone could hear was Mario blowing his whistle.

"That's the game!"

The scoreboard read 28-32. Mark looked at it in disbelief - he had scored the winning point! He shrieked, throwing his hands into the air as his team ran towards him, cheering loudly. The crowds erupted in noise, even louder than before. Even Crump was cheering for them.

"We did it!" Roy cried out, wiping a stray tear. "We freakin' did it." He wrapped an arm around Abigail who's face went bright red from his out-of-character action. She grinned though, bringing everyone in for a group hug.

Peach sighed, standing up from her seat. She turned to Daisy with a smile, "Nice job Daisy - your team's pretty good."

"Awh, thanks Peach!" Daisy hugged her best friend who quickly hugged her back.

Peach pulled back with a cheeky grin on her face, "But don't think we won't be back for a rematch!" She turned to her school and waved an arm. "Let's go everyone, we have to get back to the buses!"

The Mush High students were all disappointed and also a bit embarrassed. Their team hung their heads down in shame and in anger, resisting the urge to go fight with the winning team. No, they knew there would eventually be a round 2. And when that time did come, they'd be ready.

After they left, everyone gathered in the gymnasium inside the school. Kammy herself took the stage, a wide grin on her elderly face. "Well, we sure proved ourselves. Great job everyone - we showed them!" The crowd cheered once more for a minute or two. "And with that leads us to winter break. Have a good one everyone! And when you get back, be ready for exam season!"

The students resisted the urge to groan and complain and instead just chose to leave and celebrate the start of winter break. It was an exhausting day for everyone, and the Koopalings had a lot to talk about on the drive home.

"So…" Ludwig started, his eyes on the road. "Am I the only one who has a feeling that this isn't over?"

"Whaddya mean?" Iggy asked him, still exhausted from the big game.

"No, I know what Ludwig means." Larry leaned back in his seat - their newer car actually held 7 seats, so no more floor-seat for him or Lemmy. "I feel like especially with Mimi on their side, they'll be back for revenge or something dumb like that. Their prides are gonna be their downfall."

"Agree!" Wendy giggled a bit.

And with that came to an end for more-or-less the first semester at Koopa Troop Academy, and one hell of a time it was. It was a fun time though, for the most part. Sure they lost some friends along the way and had some fights, but really, in a place like this, isn't that to be expected? When the day's over, everyone knew that they were all family in this kingdom. Family that fought, maybe, but everyone was important to everyone. It just took them a while to realise that.

It was a rare day that the sun was out, giving the whole place a golden glow, along with the falling, silver, sparkling snow. With that, the Koopa family finally took the time to appreciate the beautiful kingdom they lived in, for all it was.


End file.
